Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, 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 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 35.4 points higher (57.6 vs 22.2) but costs 24× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $366; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 22.2, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite when 22.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 22.2 | −61.5% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 61.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $365.63 | −95.8% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 95.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 8.60s | −98.6% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 98.6% 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 (Max, Default Fallback): 61.5% less intelligence, 95.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 98.6% 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-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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