Playground · Gemini 3.8 Flash model page
Gemini 3.8 Flash in the playground
18 tests; our pick in 0. Each answer is linked to the test, where it runs live beside the other models'.
| Test | Our notes | Checks | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A map of the world from memory Drawing · 10 models |
A dark "desk reference" map with a compass rose, made of angular polygons. The Americas, India and Australia are recognisable, but Africa is drawn overlapping Eurasia, so there is no Mediterranean: its label sits on solid land, as do the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and East China Sea labels. South America runs into the Antarctic Peninsula. The ocean names themselves are in the right places. | 3 of 4 | 164 s | $0.076 |
| Draw a unicorn Drawing · 10 models |
The most ambitious drawing: a three-quarter view on a dark starry background, with glowing effects and a detailed face. It falls apart in the construction: the mane is a set of ribbons that hang across the body and legs down to the ground, the horn is a line of petal shapes trailing sparkles, and the body shows translucent seams. | 1.5 of 3 | 74 s | $0.036 |
| The Starry Night, redrawn in SVG Drawing · 10 models |
A dark, framed version built from dashed strokes: hatched cypress on the left, two large dashed rings for the swirl and stars ringed in orange dashes. The moon is a large glowing disc in which the crescent is hard to see, the spire is a needle-thin line, and the hills are replaced by a striped green field in the foreground. The village is a flat silhouette row of houses and round bushes. | 3 of 4 | 119 s | $0.070 |
| Ball bouncing in a spinning hexagon Simulation · 10 models |
The physics works: the ball falls, bounces off the turning walls and never escapes. A drawing bug, though, means the bright glowing stroke is drawn over six spokes from the centre rather than around the outline. So you see a spinning asterisk the ball seems to pass through, while the real walls are only a faint edge of the dark fill. | 2.5 of 3 | 67 s | $0.032 |
| The solar system, to scale in time Animation · 10 models |
A glowing Sun with shaded planets, Saturn with rings, toggles for labels and orbits, zoom buttons and a time-warp slider showing "36.5 days / sec". Speeds are correct (Mercury 4.15 laps per Earth year) and ◄◄/►► halve and double them. The eight planets are labelled but the Sun is not, and they all start lined up in a row. | 3 of 3 | 62 s | $0.040 |
| A product page from one feed row Business · 10 models |
Three tall socks, a colour row with "One pair of each colour in every pack" and a spec table, with no product description at all. Size M is already selected when the page loads, so a shopper can add the wrong size without choosing one. Adding turns the button to "Added" with a green "Added size M (UK 6-8) to basket." line. Nothing is invented. | 5 of 5 | 57 s | $0.027 |
| A pricing table with a monthly/yearly switch Web page · 10 models |
A dark three-card layout with a toggle labelled "Monthly / Billed Yearly". The prices switch to £5 and £9 "(billed yearly)" and back. The Team card's badge literally reads "HIGHLIGHTED", copied from the prompt. The three FAQ answers are always open and accurate. It was the fastest answer. | 4 of 4 | 33 s | $0.021 |
| Pelican riding a bicycle Drawing · 10 models |
A detailed road scene with gradients, a dotted chain and a huge orange pouch with a blue fish inside. The head is covered by a red helmet with no eye showing, and a yellow hook sticks out of it. Feet reach both pedals, but the neck sits over the stem so the handlebars are hidden and the wing stops short of them. | 2.5 of 3 | 92 s | $0.039 |
| Newton's cradle Simulation · 10 models |
A small cradle on a wooden base with buttons for one, two or three balls, a "Clash (1 vs 1)" mode and sound. The transfer is clean, but the frame is narrower than the swing, so the end balls pass straight through the uprights. Damping is very light: the end balls are still swinging after 40 seconds. | 3 of 3 | 118 s | $0.058 |
| A newsletter email that works in email Business · 10 models |
A neat card with a line-drawn sock, a dashed "October readers' gift" box and three wash tips whose SVG icons nearly vanish in dark mode. It invents a lot: "240 pairs off the vintage Bentley Komet needles in Derbyshire", "18.5-micron certified non-mulesed merino", an offer "valid on single pairs, three-packs, and gift boxes", and a Hope Valley address. It also dates the deadline "31 October 2024", a date that has already passed. | 3.5 of 5 | 45 s | $0.028 |
| A landing page for a photo-book app Web page · 10 models |
A neat cream page with a "Create Your Book — £19" button and a clickable spread preview. The price and week hold throughout, but the page makes up "4.9 / 5 from 18,400+ books printed", five-star reviews with full names, "GUARANTEED 7-DAY UK DELIVERY" and a print site in Sheffield. The footer says © 2025. | 3 of 3 | 170 s | $0.074 |
| The jelly effect: ten frontier models, one prompt Animation · 10 models |
A glowing pink ball on a dark page, with flavour buttons and a sound toggle. Clicking it makes no visible change, and dragging moves the whole ball about while it stays round; after release it drifts slowly back to the centre over several seconds. The fastest answer (64 seconds), but more a ball than a jelly. | 1 of 3 | 64 s | $0.040 |
| Conway's Game of Life Simulation · 10 models |
An 80 by 48 board in a framed panel, with the controls underneath and Glider, Pulsar, Gosper Gun and LWSS stamp buttons. All the rules tests passed, and the gun fires gliders that wrap round to the top left of the board. The speed slider is labelled in "fps" rather than generations, a small oddity, and it was the fastest answer at 56 seconds. | 4 of 4 | 56 s | $0.037 |
| Flappy Bird in one file Game · 10 models |
A city-skyline Flappy Bird with chunky "GAME OVER" lettering, a medal slot and little sparkles when the bird flaps. Everything works, but the gaps are tighter than in the other games, so our best was 3 pipes against 10 or more elsewhere. Tapping after a crash starts a new run straight away at 0. | 4 of 4 | 52 s | $0.027 |
| Chess with every rule Game · 10 models |
The page shows a "White's Turn" bar and an empty dark square where the board should be. The script crashes as it loads ("Cannot access 'chess' before initialization"): the game draws the board before the game object exists, and the board never appears. The New Game button throws the same error, so no move can be played. | 0 of 5 | 110 s | $0.062 |
| A category page from a product feed Business · 10 models |
"Aerostorm" has colour swatches, size chips, a single max-price slider and an "Add" button on every card. The filters and sorts all worked. But it stamps "20K WATERPROOF" on six jackets, the city trench among them, adds a free-delivery banner, and draws every jacket with the same short-sleeved shape. | 3 of 4 | 74 s | $0.054 |
| An animated SVG logo Drawing · 10 models |
An ambitious dark card with blue glass-like shards, a sheen sweep and "HYPERSPEED COURIER", but the layout breaks: the CSS slide-in overwrites the wordmark's position, so "KESTREL" ends up jammed against the left edge on top of the mark, leaving the right half of the card empty. The name is still legible through the overlap, just barely. | 3.5 of 4 | 119 s | $0.046 |
| An analogue clock that tells the time Drawing · 10 models |
A dark "CHRONOMETER" dial with thin gold hands, small gold numerals and a date window. The time and hands are right, but the date window replaces the 3, so only eleven hours are numbered, and the numerals are small for the size of the dial. | 3.5 of 4 | 55 s | $0.025 |