The closest alternative to Gemini 3 Flash Preview is GPT-5.2 — comparable intelligence (46.6 vs 46.4); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $0.500/M; for more speed, GLM 4.7 hits 427 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
GPT-5.2 is the closest alternative to Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with an Intelligence Index of 46.6 (Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores 46.4) at $1.75 per million input tokens.
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $0.500 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Gemini 3 Flash Preview — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.