Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) 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 15.1 points higher (56.0 vs 40.9) but costs 4.5× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1623; 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 40.9, and Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when 40.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 40.9 | −27.0% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 27.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,622.73 | −77.6% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 77.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 367.63s | 30.91s | −91.6% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 91.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 27.0% less intelligence, 77.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.6% 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 3.8 Flash (High) 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-3-8-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/gemini-3-8-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill