TL;DR — Gemini 3 Flash undercuts Haiku 4.5 by ~13× on input ($0.075 vs $1) and ~17× on output ($0.30 vs $5). Every number below is from our weekly-verified pricing tracker (verified 2026-08-26).
Pricing side by side (per 1M tokens, USD)
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | |-------|----------|-------|--------| | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | $1 | $5 | | Gemini 3 Flash | Google | $0.075 | $0.3 |
Verified 2026-08-26 against official rate cards — the tracker keeps the change log.
What a real month costs
At a standard workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens/month:
- Claude Haiku 4.5: $20.00
- Gemini 3 Flash: $1.35
On this mix, Gemini 3 Flash is the cheaper column (14.8× gap). Your ratio will differ — run your own mix through the LLM cost calculator.
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 if
Anthropic-quality small-model behavior matters: Haiku is the stronger rung for tasks with any judgment component.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash if
cost floor is the goal: Flash's input price is the cheapest tracked, which makes it nearly unbeatable for input-heavy scanning workloads.
Routing decision card
- Flash for reading, Haiku for deciding — a surprisingly effective two-model budget stack
- Input-heavy RAG pipelines specifically: Flash's $0.075 input is the number to beat
- Both are cheap enough that quality on your task, not price, should settle ties
- The router answer: most teams shouldn't hard-pick one — ClawRouters routes each request to whichever side fits it, so the comparison becomes a per-call decision instead of a bet.
Per-model detail: Claude Haiku 4.5 deep dive
Part of the LLM model comparison index. Prices move fast in 2026 — the tracker logs every change with dates.