Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 4 Argon (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 4 Argon (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 5.0 points higher (57.6 vs 52.6) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $2407; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 52.6, and Gemini 4 Argon (High) when 52.6 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 4 Argon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 52.6 | −8.7% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 8.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $2,407.24 | −72.4% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 72.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 65.70s | −89.5% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 89.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Gemini 4 Argon (High) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 8.7% less intelligence, 72.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 89.5% 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 4 Argon (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Gemini 4 Argon (High)Today'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-4-argon · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gemini-4-argon?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill