Gemini 2.0 Flash vs Phi-3.5 Medium
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceGemini 2.0 Flash
Gemini 2.0 Flash publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-3.5 Medium does not.
- Context windowGemini 2.0 Flash
Gemini 2.0 Flash accepts 1.0M tokens vs 128K, 8.2× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesGemini 2.0 Flash
Gemini 2.0 Flash supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for Phi-3.5 Medium.
- OpennessPhi-3.5 Medium
Phi-3.5 Medium ships open weights (MIT); Gemini 2.0 Flash is API-only.
On balance Gemini 2.0 Flash edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Phi-3.5 Medium's 1. Gemini 2.0 Flash publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-3.5 Medium does not. Gemini 2.0 Flash accepts 1.0M tokens vs 128K, 8.2× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Gemini 2.0 Flash handles text, vision, audio while Phi-3.5 Medium handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Phi-3.5 Medium ships open weights (MIT); Gemini 2.0 Flash is API-only.
Gemini 2.0 Flash is the newer of the two, released 6 months after Phi-3.5 Medium, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Gemini 2.0 Flash is usually picked for rag and long context workloads, while Phi-3.5 Medium sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Gemini 2.0 Flash | Phi-3.5 Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Aug 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio | text |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.10 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $0.40 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-08 | , |
| Open weights | No | Yes (MIT) |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$0.900 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$9.00 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$17.40 vs ,
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Gemini 2.0 Flash$0.030
- Phi-3.5 MediumPricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,78.9
Gemini 2.0 Flash fits when…
- Long context
- Cheap
- Long-context tasks, handles 1.0M tokens vs 128K for Phi-3.5 Medium.
- Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
Phi-3.5 Medium fits when…
- MIT license
- 128k context
- Strong reasoning at 14B
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
Consider Gemini 3 Pro
Google's late-2025 flagship, set new benchmarks on long-context, vision, and reasoning at competitive pricing.
Frequently asked
Is Gemini 2.0 Flash or Phi-3.5 Medium cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 2.0 Flash accepts 1.0M tokens vs 128K for Phi-3.5 Medium.Is Gemini 2.0 Flash or Phi-3.5 Medium better for coding?
Both Gemini 2.0 Flash and Phi-3.5 Medium are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Phi-3.5 Medium ships open weights (MIT). Gemini 2.0 Flash is API-only.When were Gemini 2.0 Flash and Phi-3.5 Medium released?
Gemini 2.0 Flash was released by Google on 2025-02-05. Phi-3.5 Medium was released by Microsoft on 2024-08-20.
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