Pareto 26.9 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Pareto 26.9 took 10 min 32 s and $0.34 at list price, Gemini 3.8 Flash took 8 min 33 s and $0.32 at list price. Pareto 26.9 took 1.2× as long, and both cost about the same.
Pareto 26.9
Unbiased · $7.50/M out
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Google · $4.13/M out · 1,293 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a small workshop in the heart of Rotterdam, where three people spend their days elbow-deep in the guts of vintage synthesizers. We fix the machines that made the sounds you grew up with—the ones that shaped entire genres and then got left in basements when the tech moved on. But we're not a museum. Our benches are covered in solder, schematics, and the occasional broken key that's been there for two weeks longer than we'd like to admit.
We started this studio because we got tired of seeing classic gear being stripped for parts, or worse, turned into Instagram decor. These instruments deserve better. They were built to make noise, and we want to keep them doing exactly that.
Between the three of us, we've fixed everything from a 1960s Buchla to a beat-up Juno that fell down a flight of stairs. If you've got a synth that's gone quiet, bring it in. We'll bring it back.
Tucked away in Rotterdam, Patchbay is a three-person repair studio dedicated to the preservation and revival of vintage synthesizers. We believe that classic instruments are living machines rather than museum relics—tools built to inspire, create, and be played loud. Between the three of us, we combine decades of experience in electronics engineering, sound design, and meticulous craftsmanship. Whether tracking down elusive voice chips for an eighties polyphonic giant, rebuilding power supplies, or recalibrating the drift on a cantankerous monophonic circuit from the seventies, we treat every piece of gear with obsessive attention to detail. Our workbench is built on a deep respect for historical engineering and a refusal to cut corners. For musicians, producers, and collectors across the Netherlands and beyond, Patchbay is where forgotten circuits find their current again, keeping the tactile soul of analog synthesis alive and resonant.
Specs and numbers
| Pareto 26.9 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Unbiased | |
| Made in | — | US |
| Released | 13 Oct 2026 | 2 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.50 | $0.825 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $7.50 | $4.13 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | closed |
| Hacker News points | — | 1,293 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 32 s | 8 min 33 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.34 | $0.32 |
Both cost about the same at list price: $0.34 and $0.32. Gemini 3.8 Flash was faster: 2 min less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. Pareto 26.9's landing page was cut off at the output limit (12,000 tokens).





