Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) 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 25.0 points higher (57.6 vs 32.6) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $4222; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.5 Flash (High).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 32.6 | −43.4% Gemini 3.5 Flash (Hig… is 43.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $4,222.12 | −51.5% Gemini 3.5 Flash (Hig… is 51.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 16.65s | −97.3% Gemini 3.5 Flash (Hig… is 97.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.50 / $9.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 43.4% less intelligence, 51.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.3% 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 3.5 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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