Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 33.8 points higher (56.0 vs 22.2) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($4057 vs $366; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 22.2, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite when 22.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 22.2 | −60.4% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 60.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $365.63 | −91.0% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 91.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 127.77s | 9.09s | −92.9% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 92.9% 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 60.4% less intelligence, 91.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.9% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- 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.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh/gemini-3-5-flash-lite · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh/gemini-3-5-flash-lite?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill