All comparisons
GoogleCascade baseline

Gemini 3.8 Live vs Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash is ahead on reliability, success rate, agent responses, data accuracy and stalled calls, and Gemini 3.8 Live on interruption and response time.

Last updated Methodology by Dileep Chagam

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Success rate by suite

Higher is better
Appointments59 scenariosMedicare23 scenarios
  • Gemini 3.8 LiveGoogle
    76%
    52%
  • Cascade, GPT-4.1Not ranked
    97%
    83%
Each model's share of calls that passed every check, on each suite.
Verdict

Which to pick

Pick Gemini 3.8 Live for handling interruptions (0.02 higher) and fast replies (0.26s sooner). Pick Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash for reliability across repeated calls (41.5 points higher), calls that pass every check (24.0 points higher), getting the agent's replies right (4.9 points higher), saving the caller's data correctly (23.6 points higher) and fewer stalled calls (1.2 points lower).

Every metric, side by side

Reliability

Scenarios that passed on all three runs.

Gemini 3.8 Live
41.5%11th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
82.9%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 41.5 points higher

Success rate

Calls that passed every check.

Gemini 3.8 Live
69.1%9th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
93.1%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 24.0 points higher

Agent responses

Calls where the agent's replies reached the expected outcome.

Gemini 3.8 Live
94.3%8th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
99.2%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 4.9 points higher

Data accuracy

Calls where everything the agent saved matched exactly.

Gemini 3.8 Live
70.5%9th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
94.1%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 23.6 points higher

Stalled calls

Calls where the agent went silent for 10 seconds or more.

Gemini 3.8 Live
2.0%3rd
Cascade, GPT-4.1
0.8%

Cascade, GPT-4.1, 1.2 points lower

Interruption

How well it handled being talked over, 0 to 5.

Gemini 3.8 Live
4.983rd
Cascade, GPT-4.1
4.96

Gemini 3.8 Live, 0.02 higher

Response time

Median time to start replying after the caller finishes.

Gemini 3.8 Live
1.91s4th
Cascade, GPT-4.1
2.17s

Gemini 3.8 Live, 0.26s sooner

Cost / min

One minute of call at the vendor's published rates.

Gemini 3.8 Live
No verified rate
Cascade, GPT-4.1
No verified rate

Not comparable

The small figure is the place among ranked models. The cascade is not ranked.

Gemini 3.8 Live answers first

Gemini 3.8 Live 1.91s, Cascade, GPT-4.1 2.17s at the median.

Response time, median to p90

Lower is betterMedianTo p90
Medianp90
  • Gemini 3.8 LiveGoogle
    Gemini 3.8 Live: median 1.91s, p90 2.23s
    1.91s2.23s
  • Cascade, GPT-4.1Not ranked
    Cascade, GPT-4.1: median 2.17s, p90 2.51s
    2.17s2.51s
2.0s3.0s
Seconds from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply, per model.

What we saw on the calls

Gemini 3.8 Live

  • Replies sooner, and more bookings reach the outcome.
All 3 notes on Gemini 3.8 Live
Model
gemini-3.8-live
Setting
No thinking level
Voice
Charon
Turn taking
Service turn detection
Audio
16 kHz
Cost
The export carries audio tokens but not text or cached input, so a per-call cost is not derived.

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash

  • Most scenarios pass every run, and none fails every run.
All 4 notes on Cascade, GPT-4.1
Model
flux-general-en → gpt-4.1 → eleven_flash_v2_5
Setting
No reasoning setting
Voice
ElevenLabs 21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM
Turn taking
Speech-to-text turn detection
Audio
16 kHz
Cost
Not published: no verified combined rate for the three services.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.8 Live or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash more reliable?

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash is more reliable, by 41.5 points. Gemini 3.8 Live passed 34 of 82 scenarios on all three runs, and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash passed 68. A scenario only counts when every run of it passed.

Is Gemini 3.8 Live better than a cascaded STT, LLM and TTS pipeline?

On reliability, no: the Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash cascade passes more scenarios on every run. Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash is ahead on reliability, success rate, agent responses, data accuracy and stalled calls, and Gemini 3.8 Live on interruption and response time. Both ran as the same agent, with the same prompt and tools.

Which saves caller data more accurately, Gemini 3.8 Live or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash, by 23.6 points. Gemini 3.8 Live saved everything exactly right on 70.5% of the calls that save data, and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash on 94.1%. On Appointments, 78.4% against 98.8%. On Medicare, 50.0% against 81.8%. A call counts only when nothing is missing, wrong, extra or saved twice.

Is Gemini 3.8 Live faster than Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Yes. Gemini 3.8 Live starts replying 0.26s sooner at the median. Gemini 3.8 Live takes 1.91s at the median and 2.23s at p90; Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash takes 2.17s and 2.51s. Both are measured on the call audio, from the caller finishing to the agent starting to reply.

Which handles interruptions better, Gemini 3.8 Live or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Live, by 0.02 on a 0 to 5 scale. Gemini 3.8 Live scores 4.98 and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash 4.96 for how well the agent handled being talked over.

Which goes silent on callers less often, Gemini 3.8 Live or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash, by 1.2 points. The agent went silent for 10 seconds or more on 2.0% of Gemini 3.8 Live calls and 0.8% of Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash calls.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Live or Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash?

There is no verified per-minute rate for Gemini 3.8 Live and Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash, so cost cannot be compared yet.

Where does the Gemini 3.8 Live vs Flux → GPT-4.1 → ElevenLabs Flash data come from?

Cekura ran both as the whole agent in the same open-source Pipecat pipeline, with the same prompt, tools and connection. A simulated caller worked through all 82 scenarios on live calls, three times each, 2,952 calls across the benchmark. A call passes only when the agent said the right things and saved the right data. The cascade runs the same agent for reference and is never ranked.