Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 27.9 points higher (57.6 vs 29.7) but costs 4.5× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $1935; 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 29.7, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview when 29.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 29.7 | −48.4% Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is 48.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $1,935.39 | −77.8% Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is 77.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 693.20s | 24.38s | −96.5% Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is 96.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 48.4% less intelligence, 77.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.5% 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 3.1 Pro Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gemini-3-1-pro-preview · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gemini-3-1-pro-preview?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill