Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 40.4 points higher (56.0 vs 15.6) but costs 47× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $156; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 15.6, and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when 15.6 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 15.6 | −72.1% Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is 72.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $155.87 | −97.9% Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is 97.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 385.69s | 6.09s | −98.4% Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is 98.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.25 / $1.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 72.1% less intelligence, 97.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 98.4% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill