Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 4 Argon (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 4 Argon (High) 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
Gemini 4 Argon (High) scores 10.3 points higher (52.6 vs 42.3) but costs 2.8× as much to run the benchmark ($2407 vs $860; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Gemini 4 Argon (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Gemini 4 Argon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.3 | 52.6 | +24.3% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 24.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $860.33 | $2,407.24 | +179.8% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 2.8× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.48s | 64.86s | +419.7% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 419.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Gemini 4 Argon (High) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 24.3% more intelligence, 179.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 419.7% slower 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 4 Argon (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Gemini 4 Argon (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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