Google undercuts OpenAI with cheaper Gemini 3.8 Live voice AI
google released gemini 3.8 live, an audio model for developers, at a lower cost than openai's gpt-live-1, with $0.005 per minute for audio input.
google deepmind released gemini 3.8 live and 3.8 live extended thinking, two new audio models for developers available through the gemini api and google 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, supporting over 97 languages. the extended thinking variant ranks first on the artificial analysis speech-to-speech leaderboard with 82.6 percent, ahead of openai's latest gpt-live-1 models. google charges $0.005 per minute for audio input and $0.018 for output, compared to openai's $0.05 per minute. an hour of voice conversation costs about $1.38 with google versus at least $3.00 with openai.