Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 2.5 Pro by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 41.5 points higher (57.6 vs 16.1) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $823; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 16.1, and Gemini 2.5 Pro when 16.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 16.1 | −72.0% Gemini 2.5 Pro is 72.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $822.85 | −90.6% Gemini 2.5 Pro is 90.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 27.13s | −95.7% Gemini 2.5 Pro is 95.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.25 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 72.0% less intelligence, 90.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Gemini 2.5 Pro is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Gemini 2.5 ProToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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