Gemini 3.8 Flash is the best AI for homework for most students. It explains clearly, handles maths and science step by step, reads photos of handwritten problems and textbook pages, and costs $0.75 per million input tokens on the API — though most students will use it free in the Gemini app. Use it to understand a method, then try the next problem yourself; an AI that solves everything teaches nothing.
The safest homework default, the cheaper option worth trying first, and the specialist pick — before you read the detail below.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is the strongest answer here for homework — pick it when quality of output matters more than the $0.75/1M/1M input you pay for it.
Claude Haiku 5.5 handles the same job for about 87% less per token. Start here and only move up if the output is not good enough.
GPT-6 Luna is the fastest of these for homework — worth it when latency is what the reader notices, not the last few points of reasoning depth.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is the best homework default — clear explanations and photo input of problems.
Claude Haiku 5.5 and GPT-6 Luna are the cheapest capable options at $0.10 per million input tokens.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is worth it for essays and long writing assignments.
Start with a low-cost model so daily practice stays affordable.
Move to a stronger model when homework involves code, proofs or multi-step reasoning.
Use a writing-first model such as Claude Sonnet 5.5 when the task is organising and rewriting ideas.
Switch the scoring lens to see whether the homework answer changes when cost, speed, or long-document depth leads the decision.
Anthropic / Balanced / Oct 10, 2026
Near-Opus 5.5 quality on scoped work at half the price.
Ranks models by the broadest mix of coding, writing, research, and long-context usefulness.
The work is long, ambiguous and multi-step — Anthropic positions Opus 5.5 for exactly that — or you need the lowest possible price, where Haiku 5.5 costs a twentieth as much.
Where the homework recommendation shifts once you weigh price or latency differently.
Google's fast agentic workhorse — strong coding at Flash pricing.
Anthropic's budget model, now with adjustable reasoning, at $0.10/$0.50.
OpenAI's budget tier at half the old price.
Near-Opus 5.5 quality on scoped work at half the price.
List prices and published scores — the numbers this page's pick is built from.
| Model | Input | Output | Est. month | Context | Speed | Coding | Writing | Research |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle | $0.75/1M | $3.75/1M | $15 | 1M tokens | Very fast | 92 | 86 | 89 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic | $0.10/1M | $0.50/1M | $2.00 | 1M tokens | Very fast | 86 | 84 | 82 |
| GPT-6 LunaOpenAI | $0.10/1M | $0.50/1M | $2.00 | 1.1M tokens | Very fast | 84 | 82 | 80 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic | $2.00/1M | $10.00/1M | $40 | 1M tokens | Fast | 98 | 98 | 95 |
Scores out of 100 — how we evaluate models. “Est. month” is 10M in / 2M out at list price: a ceiling, no discounts.
Why each one is on the shortlist for homework, what it is genuinely good at, and where we would steer you away from it.
Our pick for homework. It scores 92/100 on the coding axis we weight this page by, and nothing else in this shortlist matches it on output quality.
Google's September 2, 2026 Flash model, positioned as the agentic workhorse of the Gemini 3 family — stronger coding and terminal work than 3.7 Flash at the same $0.75/$3.75 price.
You need long single responses (65K output cap) or your workload is output-heavy enough that its verbosity erases the per-token saving.
The fastest capable model in its price range. Gemini 3.8 Flash is the pick for multimodal and terminal-heavy agent work on a budget; just measure cost per task, not per token, because it writes a lot.
Full pricing, benchmark table and release notes on the Gemini 3.8 Flash page.
Where most budgets should land for homework — about 87% less per token than Gemini 3.8 Flash, and still 86/100 on the coding axis.
Anthropic's October 7, 2026 low-cost model and the first Haiku with adjustable reasoning effort — thinking can be switched off for simple requests or raised to max, at $0.10/$0.50 per 1M under 100K input tokens.
Your prompts routinely exceed 100K tokens, where the price quintuples, or the task needs sustained reasoning that Sonnet 5.5 handles far better.
The cheapest way to put an Anthropic model in a high-volume pipeline. Keep requests under 100K tokens to stay on the low rate, and set effort per task — at low effort it is a fast classifier, at max it handles real tool-use work.
Full pricing, benchmark table and release notes on the Claude Haiku 5.5 page.
Here for latency: it answers fastest of anything listed for homework, at 84/100 on coding.
OpenAI's budget tier at half the old price. Full GPT-6 Luna review →
Also worth a look for homework, at 98/100 on the coding axis.
Near-Opus 5.5 quality on scoped work at half the price. Full Claude Sonnet 5.5 review →
UseRightAI recommendations are based on practical decision factors people actually feel in day-to-day use.
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For homework, Gemini 3.8 Flash (Google) is our pick. Google's fast agentic workhorse — strong coding at Flash pricing. It costs $0.75/1M input and $3.75/1M output tokens, with a 1M-token context window — enough headroom for all but the largest homework jobs. Claude Haiku 5.5 is the closest alternative if it doesn't fit your setup.
Because the work it is built for overlaps closely with homework: terminal and coding agents — Google reports 90.8% on Terminal-Bench 2.1, up from 81.6% for 3.7 Flash and video, image and PDF understanding in one 1M-context call. The fastest capable model in its price range. Gemini 3.8 Flash is the pick for multimodal and terminal-heavy agent work on a budget; just measure cost per task, not per token, because it writes a lot.
On a moderate month — 10M input and 2M output tokens — Gemini 3.8 Flash runs about $15.00 at list price, with no batch or caching discounts applied, so treat that as a ceiling. Claude Haiku 5.5 is the cheaper route at roughly $2.00 for the same volume, if homework is high-volume enough for price to lead the decision.
Verbose: Artificial Analysis needed 120M output tokens to run its index against a 71M median, so cost per task runs above the sticker price. 65K max output — half of what Claude and OpenAI's current models allow. Avoid it if you need long single responses (65K output cap) or your workload is output-heavy enough that its verbosity erases the per-token saving. None of that rules it out for homework on its own — but if one of those limits maps onto how you actually work, take the alternative on this page seriously rather than defaulting to the top pick.
Claude Haiku 5.5 at $0.1/1M input is the budget option here. Anthropic's budget model, now with adjustable reasoning, at $0.10/$0.50. Expect a quality step down on the hardest cases — the usual pattern is to route routine homework volume to Claude Haiku 5.5 and keep Gemini 3.8 Flash for the work where a wrong answer is expensive.