Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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 26.3 points higher (56.0 vs 29.7) but costs 3.8× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1935; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 29.7, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview when 29.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 29.7 | −47.0% Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is 47.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,935.39 | −73.3% Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is 73.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 385.69s | 25.04s | −93.5% Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is 93.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 47.0% less intelligence, 73.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.5% 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 Pro Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
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-pro-preview · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/gemini-3-1-pro-preview?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill