text model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash are both current text models, from Anthropic and Google. Gemini 3.6 Flash is 25% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5.5, $1.50 vs $2. On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1477 Elo and Gemini 3.6 Flash 1483 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 3.6 Flash1483 Elo against 1477 Elo
- Lower price per 1M input tokens
- Gemini 3.6 Flash$1.50 against $2
- Longer context window
- Gemini 3.6 Flash1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
- Newer release
- Claude Sonnet 5.5Sep 2026 against Jul 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash, 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 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $2 | $1.50 (better) |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $10 | $7.50 (better) |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1477 Elo (#19 of 51) | 1483 Elo (#12 of 51) (better) |
| Arena WebDev | 1770 Elo (#3 of 45) (better) | 1538 Elo (#34 of 45) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 88.8% (#8 of 42) (better) | 58.9% (#31 of 42) |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% (#3 of 41) (better) | 94.1% (#9 of 41) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% (#23 of 38) | 66.2% (#11 of 38) (better) |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Release date | September 28, 2026 | July 21, 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 3.6 Flash 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 3.6 Flash #12 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 3.6 Flash:#12of 51
1,483 Elo · ahead of 78%
Arena WebDev
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#3of 45
1,770 Elo · ahead of 95%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#34of 45
1,538 Elo · ahead of 25%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#8of 42
88.8% · ahead of 83%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#31of 42
58.9% · ahead of 27%
GPQA Diamond
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#3of 41
95.6% · ahead of 95%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#9of 41
94.1% · ahead of 80%
SimpleQA Verified
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#23of 38
46.5% · ahead of 41%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#11of 38
66.2% · ahead of 73%
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#29of 52
$2 · cheaper than 24%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#28of 52
$1.50 · cheaper than 47%
Price per 1M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#34of 52
$10 · cheaper than 25%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#32of 52
$7.50 · cheaper than 39%
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#26of 64
1M tokens · longer than 22%
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Quality against price
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1,477 at $4; Gemini 3.6 Flash scores 1,483 at $3 (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.
The same work, priced
For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 1.3 times as much as Gemini 3.6 Flash, at each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 1.3× as much
- Claude Sonnet 5.5
- $40
- Gemini 3.6 Flash
- $30
| Workload or rate | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $40 | $30 (better) |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | $22.90 | Not listed |
| The same, through the batch API | $20 | Not listed |
| 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 |
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 1538 Elo
- Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 88.8% vs 58.9%
- Higher GPQA Diamond score, 95.6% vs 94.1%
- 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 3.6 Flash
Where it leads
- Lower input and output prices, $1.50 and $7.50 vs $2 and $10 per 1M tokens
- Higher Arena Text score, 1483 Elo vs 1477 Elo
- Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 66.2% vs 46.5%
- Accepts audio and video input
Best for
- Current multimodal agentic evaluations balancing speed and capability
Watch out for
- Not in the pinned LiveBench snapshot; its independent scores here come from Epoch AI's own GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath and SimpleQA Verified runs
From benchmark to production
Building on Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
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 3.6 Flash FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is 25% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5.5, $1.50 vs $2. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $40 and Gemini 3.6 Flash $30 at standard rates.
Do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash 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 3.6 Flash.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on Arena Text, 1483 Elo to 1477 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on Arena WebDev, 1770 Elo to 1538 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 88.8% to 58.9%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
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 3.6 Flash 65,536.
How do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash differ in features?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes text and image input; Gemini 3.6 Flash takes text, image, audio and video.
Further reading
More on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
Articles on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
- 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
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Claude Opus 5: Route by TierJuly 26, 2026
Related comparisons
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Mistral Large 4
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-5.3
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- DeepSeek-V4-Pro vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Claude Opus 5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Grok 4.20
Production evaluation
Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash?
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