text model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview are both current text models, from Anthropic and Google. On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1477 Elo and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 1487 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).
- Higher Arena Text
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview1487 Elo against 1477 Elo
- Longer context window
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
- Newer release
- Claude Sonnet 5.5Sep 2026 against Feb 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, line by line
Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $2 | Not listed |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $10 | Not listed |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1477 Elo (#19 of 51) | 1487 Elo (#10 of 51) (better) |
| Arena WebDev | 1770 Elo (#3 of 45) (better) | 1447 Elo (#36 of 45) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 88.8% (#8 of 42) (better) | 59.6% (#30 of 42) |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% (#3 of 41) (better) | 94.4% (#6 of 41) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% (#23 of 38) | 73.5% (#4 of 38) (better) |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Release date | September 28, 2026 | February 19, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Input | text, image | text, image, audio, video |
| Output | text | text |
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ranks #19 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview #10 of 51 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#19of 51
1,477 Elo · ahead of 62%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#10of 51
1,487 Elo · ahead of 82%
Arena WebDev
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#3of 45
1,770 Elo · ahead of 95%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#36of 45
1,447 Elo · ahead of 20%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#8of 42
88.8% · ahead of 83%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#30of 42
59.6% · ahead of 29%
GPQA Diamond
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#3of 41
95.6% · ahead of 95%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#6of 41
94.4% · ahead of 88%
SimpleQA Verified
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#23of 38
46.5% · ahead of 41%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#4of 38
73.5% · ahead of 92%
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#29of 52
$2 · cheaper than 24%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Not listed
Price per 1M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#34of 52
$10 · cheaper than 25%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Not listed
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#26of 64
1M tokens · longer than 22%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Quality against price
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1,477 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 price: the data
| Model | Provider | Blended price per 1M tokens | Arena Text (Elo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $4 | 1,520 | |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $8 | 1,509 |
| Muse Wonder | Meta | $8 | 1,507 |
| Claude Fable 5 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $1.50 | 1,496 | |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | Meta | $2 | 1,495 |
| Claude Opus 5 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,492 |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot Kimi | $6 | 1,488 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | $8 | 1,485 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $3 | 1,483 | |
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $11 | 1,482 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,482 |
| Qwen3.8-Max | Alibaba Qwen | $3 | 1,482 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,481 |
| GLM-5.3 | Z.ai | $2.15 | 1,481 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.54 | 1,480 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,477 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Z.ai | $0.24 | 1,477 |
| GPT-6 Astra | OpenAI | $20 | 1,476 |
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | DeepSeek | $0.52 | 1,476 |
| GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $5.63 | 1,475 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $1.13 | 1,473 | |
| Grok 4.20 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,472 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | OpenAI | $4.50 | 1,467 |
| Grok 4.5 | xAI | $3 | 1,465 |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | DeepSeek | $1.98 | 1,465 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,462 |
| GPT-6 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,458 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.85 | 1,456 | |
| Grok 4.6 | xAI | $3 | 1,455 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.45 | 1,453 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.18 | 1,448 |
| Step 5 Preview | StepFun | $1.43 | 1,448 |
| Grok 4.3 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,442 |
| GPT-6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.20 | 1,441 |
| Grok 4.7 | xAI | $3 | 1,441 |
| Mistral Large 4 | Mistral AI | $1.05 | 1,432 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Anthropic | $0.20 | 1,425 |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | $3.50 | 1,415 |
| Solar Pro 4 | Upstage | $0.52 | 1,388 |
| GPT-4.1 mini | OpenAI | $0.70 | 1,383 |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.18 | 1,322 |
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.
| Workload or rate | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | $0.10 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, 5-minute cache write | $2.50 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, 1-hour cache write | $4 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, batch | $1 | Not listed |
| 1M output tokens, batch | $5 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, cached, prompts over 200K tokens | Not listed | $0.40 |
| 1M input tokens, cached, prompts up to 200K tokens | Not listed | $0.20 |
| 1M input tokens, prompts over 200K tokens | Not listed | $4 |
| 1M output tokens, prompts over 200K tokens | Not listed | $18 |
| 1M input tokens, prompts up to 200K tokens | Not listed | $2 |
| 1M output tokens, prompts up to 200K tokens | Not listed | $12 |
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
Verdict
When to choose each
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Where it leads
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1770 Elo vs 1447 Elo
- Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 88.8% vs 59.6%
- Higher GPQA Diamond score, 95.6% vs 94.4%
- Longer responses, up to 128,000 vs 65,536 output tokens
- A cached-input rate, $0.10 per 1M tokens
- Batch pricing, $1 input and $5 output per 1M tokens
Best for
- Production workloads that need frontier-adjacent quality at a mid-tier rate
- Latency-sensitive agent steps inside a larger pipeline
Watch out for
- Same list price as Claude Sonnet 5, so the gain is capability and cache economics rather than a cheaper rate card
- Anthropic positions Opus 5.5 rather than this as the default, so reach for Sonnet 5.5 when latency matters more than peak capability
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Where it leads
- Higher Arena Text score, 1487 Elo vs 1477 Elo
- Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 73.5% vs 46.5%
- Accepts audio and video input
Best for
- Multimodal reasoning and agentic coding evaluations
Watch out for
- This preview endpoint may change before becoming stable; production use should account for its published prompt-length price tiers
From benchmark to production
Building on Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
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
FAQ
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview FAQ
Do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview discount cached input?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists a cached-input rate of $0.10 per 1M tokens, 95% below its standard input rate. No cached-input rate is listed for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads on Arena Text, 1487 Elo to 1477 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on Arena WebDev, 1770 Elo to 1447 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 88.8% to 59.6%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000). Claude Sonnet 5.5 returns up to 128,000 tokens per response, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 65,536.
How do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview differ in features?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes text and image input; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview takes text, image, audio and video.
Further reading
More on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Articles on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6 Luna: Cost, Speed and AccuracySeptember 29, 2026
- Claude Sonnet 5.5: Benchmarks, Price and When to Use OpusSeptember 29, 2026
Related comparisons
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Mistral Large 4
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Grok 4.20
Production evaluation
Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
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