Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) scores 20.1 points higher (42.3 vs 22.2) but costs 2.4× as much to run the benchmark ($860 vs $366; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.3 | 22.2 | −47.5% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 47.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $860.33 | $365.63 | −57.5% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 57.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.16s | 9.59s | −14.1% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 14.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 47.5% less intelligence, 57.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 14.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-low/gemini-3-5-flash-lite · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-low/gemini-3-5-flash-lite?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill