Claude Haiku 5.5 Max vs Gemini 3.8 Flash High compared

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 36.5 to 30.8. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs 87% less on blended price. See token costs, speed and which to pick.

Metric	Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)	Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)
Intelligence Index	36.5	30.8
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.10	$0.75
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$0.50	$3.75
Output speed (tokens/s)	233	121
Time to first token	4.6 min	27s
Release date	2026-10-07	2026-09-02

Metric

Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)

Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)

Intelligence Index

36.5

30.8

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.10

$0.75

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$0.50

$3.75

Output speed (tokens/s)

233

121

Time to first token

4.6 min

27s

Release date

2026-10-07

2026-09-02

This comparison puts Anthropic's Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) next to Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash (High). Everything below is read from the benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's catalogue; nothing here comes from a hands-on test. The sharpest difference is price: Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs $0.50 per million output tokens, against $3.75 for Gemini 3.8 Flash High.

Price per token

Per million tokens, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max charges $0.10 for input and $0.50 for output, while Gemini 3.8 Flash High charges $0.75 and $3.75. Gemini 3.8 Flash High costs 7.5 times as much per output token.

For a sample workload of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max would cost $0.20 and Gemini 3.8 Flash High $1.50, a difference of $1.30. For an agent that reads 50 million tokens and writes 5 million in a month, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max would come in 87% lower: $7.50 for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max against $56.25 for Gemini 3.8 Flash High.

Generation gap

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max arrived on October 7, 2026, 35 days after Gemini 3.8 Flash High (September 2, 2026). That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

How fast they respond

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates about 233 tokens per second and Gemini 3.8 Flash High about 121 tokens per second. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is ahead by 93% on throughput. The wait for the first token averages 4.6 minutes on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max against 27 seconds on Gemini 3.8 Flash High. The faster writer, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, gives away too much at the start to win on time: counting the first-token wait, Gemini 3.8 Flash High finishes first for any reply shorter than about 63,000 tokens. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

For a 600-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 4.7 minutes on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and 32 seconds on Gemini 3.8 Flash High.

Reasoning and overall scores

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max records 36.5 on the intelligence index and Gemini 3.8 Flash High records 30.8. That is a clear margin for an index that averages many evaluations. Put another way, Gemini 3.8 Flash High would need 19% more on this index to draw level.

For context, that places Claude Haiku 5.5 Max 37th and Gemini 3.8 Flash High 50th out of 109 scored models still on offer.

Neither model has a separate coding or math index recorded yet, so those narrower comparisons will have to wait for more data.

Score per dollar

Per point of intelligence index, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs $0.0055 of blended price per million tokens and Gemini 3.8 Flash High $0.049. With the higher score and the lower cost per point, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is the better value per point on these numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.8 Flash High better than Claude Haiku 5.5 Max?

It depends on what you need: Claude Haiku 5.5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 36.5 to 30.8; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is 87% cheaper on blended price; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max streams output 1.9 times as fast; and Gemini 3.8 Flash High reaches its first token sooner.

Which is faster, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Gemini 3.8 Flash High?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates output faster, at 233 tokens per second against 121 tokens per second. Gemini 3.8 Flash High reaches its first token sooner (27 seconds against 4.6 minutes). Counting the first-token wait, Gemini 3.8 Flash High finishes first for any reply shorter than about 63,000 tokens.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Gemini 3.8 Flash High?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max lists $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash High lists $0.75 and $3.75. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $0.20 against $1.50.

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Which is newer, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Gemini 3.8 Flash High?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is newer. It was released on October 7, 2026, 35 days after Gemini 3.8 Flash High (September 2, 2026).

Final whistle

Bottom line: Claude Haiku 5.5 Max has more going for it here, but Gemini 3.8 Flash High is not without an argument. Pick Claude Haiku 5.5 Max if cost matters ($0.50 against $3.75 per million output tokens) and you need the higher overall score (36.5 against 30.8). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash High if users are waiting on the first word and replies need to finish sooner at typical lengths.

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) and Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.