Model comparison

Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Sonar

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.8 Flash Google

61.8

Rank #11 Confirmed

Sonar Perplexity

38.5

Rank #187 Confirmed

Summary

  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.8 Flash leads 76.9 to 21.1.
  • Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.8 Flash.
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

Gemini 3.8 Flash and Sonar specifications
Gemini 3.8 FlashSonar
ProviderGooglePerplexity
Noometry Index61.838.5
Released2026-09-022024-01-01
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M128K
Max output66K4K
Input $ / M tokens$0.75$1
Output $ / M tokens$3.75$1
Results tracked507

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 59.2 (#15), Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
DeepSWE73.8%—
FrontierCode41.2%—
CursorBench39.6%—
LMArena WebDev1584—
FrontierSWE19.6%—
SciCode56.6%—
WeirdML84.8%—
LiveBench Coding—35.1%
LMArena Coding1510—
ALE-Bench1,270—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 41.8 (#21), Sonar: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
APEX-Agents64.3%—
Remote Labor Index5.8%—
GDP.pdf23.4%—
Vending-Bench 25,094—

Reasoning Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 76.9 (#5), Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
ARC-AGI-289.2%—
NYT Connections (extended)97.4%—
ARC-AGI-198.5%—
CritPt18.3%—
Chess Puzzles61%—
LiveBench Reasoning—46.3%
LMArena Hard Prompts1508—
Mystery Game Puzzles47%—
DTBench95.7%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—37.9%
LMCA52.9%—
Surface Evolver Bench76.9%—
Epoch Capabilities Index156.71—
LiveBench—46.9%

Math Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 65.3 (#28), Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)68.4%—
FrontierMath Tier 422%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202598.9%—
ProofBench48%—
LiveBench Math—41.6%
LMArena Math1528—

Knowledge Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 74.8 (#2), Sonar: —

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
GPQA Diamond95.4%—
Humanity's Last Exam44.5%—
SimpleQA Verified69.7%—
LMArena Expert1524—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.7 (#45), Sonar: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
LMArena Vision1314—
Blueprint-Bench 238.6%—
Furniture Assembly31.7%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 58.0 (#5), Sonar: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
LMArena Non-English1491—
LMArena Chinese1554—
LMArena French1498—
LMArena German1493—
LMArena Japanese1502—
LMArena Korean1459—
LMArena Russian1515—
LMArena Spanish1485—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 78.0 (#13), Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
LiveBench Instruction Following—76.2%
LMArena Instruction Following1490—

Long Context Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 46.3 (#24), Sonar: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
LMArena Longer Query1508—

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 72.2 (#15), Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashSonar
LMArena Text1499—
LMArena Creative Writing1492—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1748—
LMArena Multi-Turn1501—
LiveBench Language—44.1%

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than Sonar?

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Sonar?

Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

Is Gemini 3.8 Flash or Sonar better for coding?

Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.2 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.8 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.8 Flash has 50 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.

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