Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-04.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 4.9 points higher (59.1 vs 54.2) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($8910 vs $5725; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 4 Carbon (Low).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 59.1 | 54.2 | −8.3% Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is 8.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,909.67 | $5,725.02 | −35.7% Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is 35.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 646.16s | 16.28s | −97.5% Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is 97.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 8.3% less intelligence, 35.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Gemini 4 Carbon (High) scores 60.00 for $8240.
- Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 57.40 for $4766.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Gemini 4 Carbon (Low)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gemini-4-carbon-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gemini-4-carbon-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill