Claude 3 Haiku is $0.05 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) vs Claude 3 Haiku
Pick Claude 3 Haiku when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Claude 3 Haiku when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Claude 3 Haiku is estimated at $0.88 vs $1.55 for Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image), saving $0.68 (43.5% lower).
Cost-first pickClaude 3 Haiku
Context-first pickClaude 3 Haiku
Sample savings$0.6843.5%
10x traffic gap$6.75
Claude 3 Haiku is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $6.75. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Claude 3 Haiku stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) | Claude 3 Haiku |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Claude 3 Haiku | $2.75 | $1.88 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Claude 3 Haiku | $2.8 | $1.5 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Claude 3 Haiku | $12.8 | $6.5 |
Claude 3 Haiku is $1.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (50% lower; 2x difference).
Claude 3 Haiku has 167.23K more context (6.1x larger).
Claude 3 Haiku is $0.68 cheaper on the standard workload (43.5% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Claude 3 Haiku has the lower input price; Claude 3 Haiku has the lower output price; Claude 3 Haiku offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Claude 3 Haiku is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.55 for Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) and $0.88 for Claude 3 Haiku.
Choose Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose Claude 3 Haiku when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Claude 3 Haiku is estimated at $0.88 vs $1.55 for Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image), saving $0.68 (43.5% lower).
- Claude 3 Haiku is $0.68 cheaper on the standard workload (43.5% lower).
- Claude 3 Haiku is $0.05 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).
- Claude 3 Haiku is $1.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (50% lower; 2x difference).
- Claude 3 Haiku has 167.23K more context (6.1x larger).
| Feature | Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) (Google) | Claude 3 Haiku (Anthropic) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.3 | $0.25 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $2.5 | $1.25 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $1.55 | $0.88 |
| Context Window | 32.77K | 200K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #113 | #150 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Claude 3 Haiku | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Claude 3 Haiku is estimated at $0.88 vs $1.55 for Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image), saving $0.68 (43.5% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Claude 3 Haiku | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Claude 3 Haiku | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Claude 3 Haiku | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview can replace Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Lyria 3 Clip Preview can replace Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #1
- DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #2
- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #3
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4
Cheaper alternatives
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Open Anthropic modelsGemini 2.5 Flash Image, a.k.a. "Nano Banana," is now generally available. It is a state of the art image generation model with contextual understanding. It is capable of image generation,...
Claude 3 Haiku is Anthropic's fastest and most compact model for near-instant responsiveness. Quick and accurate targeted performance. See the launch announcement and benchmark results [here](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-haiku) #multimodal