Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live to take on OpenAI's GPT-Live-1 at a fraction of the cost

Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live to take on OpenAI's GPT-Live-1 at a fraction of the cost

Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live to take on OpenAI's GPT-Live-1 at a fraction of the cost

Google Deepmind released Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, two new audio models for developers available through theGemini APIandGoogle AI Studio. Gemini 3.8 Live powers voice agents that can make API calls in the background, process visual input, and keep talking at the same time. It supports over 97 languages. The Extended Thinking variant ranks first on theArtificial Analysis Speech-to-Speech Leaderboardwith 82.6 percent, ahead ofOpenAI's latest GPT-Live-1 models. Sample apps are onGitHub.

Google charges $0.005 per minute for audio input and $0.018 for output, far cheaper than OpenAI's GPT-Live-1 at $0.05 per minute. An hour of voice conversation costs about $1.38 with Google versus at least $3.00 with OpenAI. OpenAI's model should still deliver more natural conversations thanks to full duplex that lets it listen and speak at the same time. Judging from the demos, it also sounds better, suggesting Google once again optimized for price over quality.

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