Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 5.6 points higher (38.2 vs 32.6) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $4222; both flagship class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.5 Flash (High).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 32.6 | −14.7% Gemini 3.5 Flash (Hig… is 14.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $4,222.12 | −39.7% Gemini 3.5 Flash (Hig… is 39.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 182.35s | 16.52s | −90.9% Gemini 3.5 Flash (Hig… is 90.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $1.50 / $9.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 14.7% less intelligence, 39.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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