The closest alternative to Gemini 3.6 Flash is Muse Spark 1.1 — comparable intelligence (50.6 vs 50.1); for a cheaper option, GPT-5.6 Luna runs $1.00/M vs $1.50/M; for more speed, GPT-5.6 Luna hits 174 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is GLM 5.2.
Muse Spark 1.1 is the closest alternative to Gemini 3.6 Flash, with an Intelligence Index of 50.6 (Gemini 3.6 Flash scores 50.1) at $1.25 per million input tokens.
Yes — GPT-5.6 Luna costs $1.00 per million input tokens versus $1.50 for Gemini 3.6 Flash, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
GLM 5.2 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Gemini 3.6 Flash — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 51.1 on intelligence.