Last verified 2026-02-11 (left) · 2025-09-22 (right)

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite — Pricing & Capability Comparison

Claude Haiku 4.5 charges $1.00 per million input tokens and $5.00 per million output tokens. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes in at $0.10 / $0.40. Context windows span 200K vs 1M tokens respectively.

TL;DR — Quick Comparison

✓Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper overall: $0.50 per 1M tokens (in+out) vs $6.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 — saves $5.50 per 1M tokens
✓Input pricing: Claude Haiku 4.5 $1.00/1M vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.10/1M
✓Output pricing: Claude Haiku 4.5 $5.00/1M vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.40/1M
✓Context window: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite offers more (1M vs 200K)
✓Use our calculator below to estimate costs for your specific usage pattern

Input price (per 1M)

Claude Haiku 4.5

$1.00

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

$0.10

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads here

Output price (per 1M)

Claude Haiku 4.5

$5.00

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

$0.40

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads here

Context window

Claude Haiku 4.5

200,000 tokens

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

1,000,000 tokens

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads here

Cached input

Claude Haiku 4.5

$0.100

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

Not published

Claude Haiku 4.5 leads here

Which one should you choose?

Skip the spreadsheet if you just need the practical takeaway. Use these rules when deciding between Claude Haiku 4.5 and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite.

Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite if input tokens dominate your bill

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has the lower input rate, which usually matters most for chat, RAG, classification, and long-prompt workflows where prompt volume stays much larger than generated output.

Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite if you generate long answers

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper on output tokens, so it tends to win for report generation, coding assistance, reasoning traces, and any workflow where completions are long.

Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite if context size is the blocker

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite offers the larger published context window, which is more important than small pricing differences when you need to fit large files, long chats, or multi-document prompts into one request.

Cost comparison for 10K-token workloads

Side-by-side pricing for identical workloads (10,000 total tokens per request) across different distributions.

Scenario	Claude Haiku 4.5	Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	Claude Haiku 4.5 cached
Balanced conversation 50% input · 50% output	$0.0300	$0.0025	$0.0255
Input-heavy workflow 80% input · 20% output	$0.0180	$0.0016	$0.0108
Generation heavy 30% input · 70% output	$0.0380	$0.0031	$0.0353
Cached system prompt 90% cached input · 10% fresh output	$0.0140	$0.0013	$0.0059

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper: Claude Haiku 4.5 or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper for input tokens at $0.10 per 1M tokens compared to $1.00. For output, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.40 per 1M tokens versus $5.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5?

Claude Haiku 4.5 pricing: $1.00 per 1M input tokens and $5.00 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 200,000 tokens.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite pricing: $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.40 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 1,000,000 tokens.

How much does it cost per 1K tokens?

Per 1K tokens: Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $0.0010 input / $0.0050 output. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.0001 input / $0.0004 output. This is useful for calculating small-scale usage costs.

Which model supports a larger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite offers 1,000,000 tokens (1M) versus 200K for Claude Haiku 4.5.

What is the estimated monthly cost for typical usage?

For a typical workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens per month: Claude Haiku 4.5 would cost approximately $20.00, while Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite would cost $1.80. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is more economical for this usage pattern.

Do these models support prompt caching?

Claude Haiku 4.5 supports prompt caching at $0.100 per 1M cached tokens, reducing costs for repeated context by up to 90%. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite does not publish cached pricing.

Which model is best for my use case?

Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite for cost-sensitive applications with high input volume. Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite if you need 1M context for long documents or conversations. Consider prompt caching if you have repeated context. Use our token calculator to model your specific usage pattern.