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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Carbon

Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon are both current text models, from Anthropic and Google. Gemini 4 Carbon is 50% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Opus 5.5, $2 vs $4. On Arena Text, Claude Opus 5.5 scores 1509 Elo and Gemini 4 Carbon 1528 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026).

Higher Arena Text
Gemini 4 Carbon1528 Elo against 1509 Elo
Lower price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 4 Carbon$2 against $4
Newer release
Gemini 4 CarbonOct 2026 against Sep 2026

Data verified November 5, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-05

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Side by side

Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactClaude Opus 5.5Gemini 4 Carbon
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$4$2 (better)
Price per 1M output tokens$20$10 (better)
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1509 Elo (#3 of 52)1528 Elo (#1 of 52) (better)
Arena WebDev1810 Elo (#1 of 46) (better)1768 Elo (#4 of 46)
GPQA Diamond90.6% (#25 of 41)Not measured
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)91.2% (#3 of 41)Not measured
SimpleQA Verified72.2% (#5 of 38)Not measured
Specs
ProviderAnthropicGoogle
Release dateSeptember 22, 2026October 28, 2026
AccessAPI onlylimited access
Context window1,000,000 tokensNot reported
Max output128,000 tokensNot reported
Inputtext, imagetext, image
Outputtexttext

Scores:Arena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Open both in the interactive comparison

Provider results

What the labs report

Results tables a lab published with one of its models, where it lists both Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon. These are the lab's own figures, not independent measurements, and each table is read on its own: labs run benchmarks with different harnesses and budgets.

Google, Gemini 4 Carbon launch table, October 28, 2026Google · 2026-11-05

BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Gemini 4 Carbon
ExploitGym34.5%54.8% (better)
CWE-bench67.0%71.0% (better)
SWE-sweep3.6%9.6% (better)
FrontierSWE 262.3% (better)61.2%
Agents' Last Exam v1.1score71.6%77.4% (better)
OSWorld-2.1offline subset87.2% (better)81.5%
AutomationBenchZapier42.5%53.9% (better)
Vending-Bench 2bank balance$9,235$16,484 (better)
Chartography66.3%72.5% (better)
Blueprint-Bench 2similarity score51.2%58.6% (better)
GraphWalks256K to 1M tokens, BFS F166.8%96.2% (better)
RiemannBench69.6%80.0% (better)

Google's table from the Gemini 4 Carbon announcement, evaluated without guardrails; Google publishes its methodology at deepmind.google/models/evals-methodology/gemini-4-carbon. The cybersecurity rows, Google's headline, come first. Left out here: the Artificial Analysis and Vals indexes and the two rows Artificial Analysis ran (Terminal-Bench 4.0 and Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1).

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

On Arena Text, Claude Opus 5.5 ranks #3 and Gemini 4 Carbon #1 of 52 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.

Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Claude Opus 5.5:#3of 52

1,509 Elo · ahead of 96%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#1of 52

1,528 Elo · ahead of 100%

Arena WebDev

Claude Opus 5.5:#1of 46

1,810 Elo · ahead of 100%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#4of 46

1,768 Elo · ahead of 93%

GPQA Diamond

Claude Opus 5.5:#25of 41

90.6% · ahead of 40%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not scored

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Claude Opus 5.5:#3of 41

91.2% · ahead of 95%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not scored

SimpleQA Verified

Claude Opus 5.5:#5of 38

72.2% · ahead of 89%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not scored

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Claude Opus 5.5:#45of 55

$4 · cheaper than 15%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#30of 55

$2 · cheaper than 24%

Price per 1M output tokens

Claude Opus 5.5:#45of 55

$20 · cheaper than 15%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#35of 55

$10 · cheaper than 26%

Context window

Claude Opus 5.5:#26of 64

1M tokens · longer than 22%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not listed

Scores fromArena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 28, 2026

Claude Opus 5.5 scores 1,509 at $8; Gemini 4 Carbon scores 1,528 at $4 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.

Quality against priceArena Text score against price for 44 text models, Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon marked.1,2501,3001,3501,4001,4501,5001,550$0.30$1$3$10MOST ATTRACTIVE QUADRANTMedian price $3Median 1,476Blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scaleArena Text (Elo)Gemini 4 CarbonClaude Opus 5.5
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 44 text models, Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon marked.
ModelProviderBlended price per 1M tokensArena Text (Elo)
Gemini 4 CarbonGoogle$41,528
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle$41,520
Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic$81,509
Muse WonderMeta$81,507
Claude Fable 5Anthropic$201,504
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$201,504
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$1.501,496
Muse Spark 1.3Meta$21,495
Claude Opus 5Anthropic$101,492
Kimi K3Moonshot Kimi$61,488
GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$81,485
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle$31,483
GPT-5.5OpenAI$111,482
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic$101,482
Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba Qwen$31,482
GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$41,481
GLM-5.3Z.ai$2.151,481
MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi MiMo$0.541,480
Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$41,477
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai$0.241,477
GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$201,476
DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek$0.521,476
GPT-5.4OpenAI$5.631,475
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle$1.131,473
Grok 4.20xAI$1.561,472
GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$4.501,467
Grok 4.5xAI$31,465
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek$1.981,465
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$41,462
GPT-6 SolOpenAI$41,458
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle$0.851,456
Grok 4.6xAI$31,455
GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.451,453
MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi MiMo$0.181,448
Step 5 PreviewStepFun$1.431,448
Grok 4.3xAI$1.561,442
GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.201,441
Grok 4.7xAI$31,441
Mistral Large 4Mistral AI$1.051,432
Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic$0.201,425
GPT-4.1OpenAI$3.501,415
Solar Pro 4Upstage$0.521,388
GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI$0.701,383
GPT-4.1 nanoOpenAI$0.181,322

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Opus 5.5 costs 2.0 times as much as Gemini 4 Carbon, at each provider's listed rates.

What Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon cost for the same work, at the rates each provider lists.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    Claude Opus 5.5 costs 2.0× as much

    Claude Opus 5.5
    $80
    Gemini 4 Carbon
    $40

  • The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached

    Claude Opus 5.5 costs 2.0× as much

    Claude Opus 5.5
    $45.80
    Gemini 4 Carbon
    $22.90
Workload or rateClaude Opus 5.5Gemini 4 Carbon
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$80$40 (better)
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$45.80$22.90 (better)
The same, through the batch API$40Not listed
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.20$0.10 (better)
1M input tokens, 5-minute cache write$5Not listed
1M input tokens, 1-hour cache write$8Not listed
1M input tokens, batch$2Not listed
1M output tokens, batch$10Not listed

Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.

Launch price $100, regular price $150

Book the cost audit

Verdict

When to choose each

Claude Opus 5.5

Where it leads

  • Higher Arena WebDev score, 1810 Elo vs 1768 Elo
  • Batch pricing, $2 input and $10 output per 1M tokens

Best for

  • Long-running agentic coding and knowledge work as the general-purpose default
  • Cache-heavy agent loops where the 0.05x read multiplier compounds

Watch out for

  • The API effort default is medium here, not high as on Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Sonnet 5.5, so a like-for-like comparison has to set effort explicitly
  • The 4.7-generation tokenizer produces roughly 30% more tokens for the same text than Claude Sonnet 4.6 and earlier, so per-token rates do not compare directly across generations
Full Claude Opus 5.5 profile

Gemini 4 Carbon

Where it leads

  • Lower input and output prices, $2 and $10 vs $4 and $20 per 1M tokens
  • Higher Arena Text score, 1528 Elo vs 1509 Elo
  • Cheaper cached input, $0.10 vs $0.20 per 1M tokens

Best for

  • Finding, validating and patching vulnerabilities, for teams in Google's Fairwind Program
  • Long-horizon engineering over very long inputs, once access opens

Watch out for

  • Limited access: Google gives it first to a small group of cyber defenders, then to more trusted partners through its Fairwind Program, which governments, healthcare providers and telecoms apply to; there is no public API or app access yet
  • The $2 and $10 rates are introductory, with cached input 95% off; after an introductory period Google has not dated, $4 input and $20 output per 1M tokens apply
  • In Google's own table it trails GPT-6 Astra on FrontierSWE 2 (61.2% against 65.5%) and Claude Opus 5.5 on OSWorld-2.1 (81.5% against 87.2%)
  • Google publishes no context window or output limit for Carbon yet
Full Gemini 4 Carbon profile

From benchmark to production

Building on Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes

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FAQ

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Carbon FAQ

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Gemini 4 Carbon is 50% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Opus 5.5, $2 vs $4. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Opus 5.5 costs $80 and Gemini 4 Carbon $40 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Claude Opus 5.5 charges $0.20 per 1M cached input tokens, 95% below its standard input rate, and Gemini 4 Carbon $0.10, 95% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Claude Opus 5.5 costs $45.80 and Gemini 4 Carbon $22.90.

Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Gemini 4 Carbon leads on Arena Text, 1528 Elo to 1509 Elo; Claude Opus 5.5 leads on Arena WebDev, 1810 Elo to 1768 Elo. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.

How do Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon compare in Google's own results?

In Gemini 4 Carbon launch table (October 28, 2026), Gemini 4 Carbon leads on ExploitGym, 54.8% to 34.5%; Gemini 4 Carbon leads on CWE-bench, 71.0% to 67.0%; Gemini 4 Carbon leads on SWE-sweep, 9.6% to 3.6%. These are Google's figures, not independent measurements.

Further reading

More on Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon

Articles on Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon

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Production evaluation

Choosing between Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon?

Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.

  • A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
  • Routing between models by cost and difficulty
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