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text model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 4 Carbon

Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 4 Carbon are both current text models, from Anthropic and Google. Both cost $2 per 1M input tokens. On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1462 Elo and Gemini 4 Carbon 1528 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026).

Higher Arena Text
Gemini 4 Carbon1528 Elo against 1462 Elo
Newer release
Gemini 4 CarbonOct 2026 against Jun 2026

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

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Side by side

Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5Gemini 4 Carbon
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$2$2
Price per 1M output tokens$10$10
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1462 Elo (#30 of 52)1528 Elo (#1 of 52) (better)
Arena WebDev1540 Elo (#34 of 46)1768 Elo (#4 of 46) (better)
GPQA Diamond90.5% (#26 of 41)Not measured
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)65.6% (#28 of 41)Not measured
SimpleQA Verified33.7% (#31 of 38)Not measured
LiveBench Overall74.85 points (#4 of 4)Not measured
Specs
ProviderAnthropicGoogle
Release dateJune 30, 2026October 28, 2026
AccessAPI onlylimited access
Context window1,000,000 tokensNot reported
Max output128,000 tokensNot reported
Inputtexttext, image
Outputtexttext

Scores:Arena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03LiveBench · 2026-06-25

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Charts

Against every current text model

Where Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5 ranks #30 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 Sonnet 5 and Gemini 4 Carbon among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Claude Sonnet 5:#30of 52

1,462 Elo · ahead of 43%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#1of 52

1,528 Elo · ahead of 100%

Arena WebDev

Claude Sonnet 5:#34of 46

1,540 Elo · ahead of 27%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#4of 46

1,768 Elo · ahead of 93%

GPQA Diamond

Claude Sonnet 5:#26of 41

90.5% · ahead of 35%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not scored

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Claude Sonnet 5:#28of 41

65.6% · ahead of 33%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not scored

SimpleQA Verified

Claude Sonnet 5:#31of 38

33.7% · ahead of 19%

Gemini 4 Carbon: Not scored

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Claude Sonnet 5:#30of 55

$2 · cheaper than 24%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#30of 55

$2 · cheaper than 24%

Price per 1M output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5:#35of 55

$10 · cheaper than 26%

Gemini 4 Carbon:#35of 55

$10 · cheaper than 26%

Context window

Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5 scores 1,462 at $4; 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 44 text models, Claude Sonnet 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

At each provider's listed rates.

What Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 4 Carbon cost for the same work, at the rates each provider lists.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    The same price

    Claude Sonnet 5
    $40
    Gemini 4 Carbon
    $40

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

    Claude Sonnet 5 costs 1.0× as much

    Claude Sonnet 5
    $23.80
    Gemini 4 Carbon
    $22.90
Workload or rateClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 4 Carbon
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$40$40
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$23.80$22.90 (better)
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.20$0.10 (better)

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

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Verdict

When to choose each

Claude Sonnet 5

Where it leads

No measured lead over Gemini 4 Carbon in this data.

Best for

  • Agentic coding evaluations with current introductory API pricing

Watch out for

  • The launch price is introductory through 2026-08-31; refresh pricing before evaluating workloads after that date
Full Claude Sonnet 5 profile

Gemini 4 Carbon

Where it leads

  • Higher Arena Text score, 1528 Elo vs 1462 Elo
  • Higher Arena WebDev score, 1768 Elo vs 1540 Elo
  • Accepts image input
  • 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 4 Carbon FAQ

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Both cost $2 per 1M input tokens. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $40 and Gemini 4 Carbon $40 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Claude Sonnet 5 charges $0.20 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% 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 Sonnet 5 costs $23.80 and Gemini 4 Carbon $22.90.

Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 4 Carbon?

Gemini 4 Carbon leads on Arena Text, 1528 Elo to 1462 Elo; Gemini 4 Carbon leads on Arena WebDev, 1768 Elo to 1540 Elo. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.

How do Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 4 Carbon differ in features?

Claude Sonnet 5 takes text input; Gemini 4 Carbon takes text and image.

Further reading

More on Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 4 Carbon

Articles on Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 4 Carbon

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Claude Sonnet 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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