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Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Anthropic against Google, compared on context, price, and attributed benchmark results.

Recorded profile verification October 1, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 5

Balanced

vs

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Balanced

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 Flash
ProviderAnthropicGoogle
TierBalancedBalanced
Context window1MWinner: 1.05M
Max outputWinner: 128K66K
Input / 1M tokens$2Winner: $0.75
Output / 1M tokens$10Winner: $3.75
WeightsClosedClosed
ParametersNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Reasoning levelslow, medium, high, xhigh, maxminimal, low, medium, high
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video, audio, pdf
API model idclaude-sonnet-5gemini-3.6-flash
ReleasedJune 30, 2026July 21, 2026
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Claude Sonnet 5: 2026-06-3080.4Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2026-07Not verifiedUnverified78
Humanity's Last Exam · source date Claude Sonnet 5: 2026-06-3057.4Not verifiedUnverified
LiveBench · source date Claude Sonnet 5: 2026-09-0576Not verifiedUnverified
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified48.6
HLE-Verified · source date Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2026-08Not verifiedUnverified51.2

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

Claude Sonnet 5: Standard $2/$10 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.20; 5-minute writes $2.50 and 1-hour writes $4. Batch $1/$5. US-only inference adds 10% where supported. Batch supports 300K output with output-300k-2026-03-24; standard stays 128K. Knowledge cutoff Jan 2026; retirement not sooner than June 30, 2027.

Gemini 3.6 Flash: Intro Standard $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026; $1.50/$7.50 from January 1, 2027. Output includes thinking tokens. Cached input $0.075, rising to $0.15; storage $0.50/MTok-hour, rising to $1. Batch/Flex input/output are $0.375/$1.875, rising to $0.75/$3.75. Priority $1.35/$6.75, rising to $2.70/$13.50. Grounding tools have separate charges and quotas; free-tier limits differ from paid.

BalancedRecord checked October 1, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5 is Anthropic's previous Sonnet generation for high-volume agentic work at $2/$10.

Best for

  • Everyday generation
  • High-volume agents
  • Cost-sensitive work

Watch out

Active legacy. Sonnet 5.5 launched September 28 at the same token price, with breaking changes to thinking, forced tool use, computer use, advisor choices and progress blocks. Sonnet 5 rejects non-default temperature/top_p/top_k; test the exact target model before switching.

BalancedRecord checked October 1, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is Google's balanced multimodal Flash tier with a 1M-token context.

Best for

  • Multimodal pipelines
  • High-volume processing
  • Video and audio input

Watch out

An earlier Flash model, still listed as stable. Google reports improvements on selected tasks for later releases; that does not establish a quality increase for every workload. Thinking includes minimal through high; computer use is Preview. Intro pricing doubles January 1, 2027.

When the cheaper one wins

Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper on output at $3.75 per million tokens against $10 for Claude Sonnet 5 — about 2.7×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. On DeepSWE 1.1, Gemini 3.6 Flash is 46.7% Pass@1 at $4.42/task versus Claude Sonnet 5 at 53.8% / $26.4/task. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

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Evidence confidence: Medium

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
  • No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 25 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Claude Sonnet 5 · Gemini 3.6 Flash

Common questions

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash cheaper for input?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.75 per million input tokens, against $2 for Claude Sonnet 5 — roughly 2.7× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Sonnet 5: Standard $2/$10 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.20; 5-minute writes $2.50 and 1-hour writes $4. Batch $1/$5. US-only inference adds 10% where supported. Batch supports 300K output with output-300k-2026-03-24; standard stays 128K. Knowledge cutoff Jan 2026; retirement not sooner than June 30, 2027. Gemini 3.6 Flash: Intro Standard $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026; $1.50/$7.50 from January 1, 2027. Output includes thinking tokens. Cached input $0.075, rising to $0.15; storage $0.50/MTok-hour, rising to $1. Batch/Flex input/output are $0.375/$1.875, rising to $0.75/$3.75. Priority $1.35/$6.75, rising to $2.70/$13.50. Grounding tools have separate charges and quotas; free-tier limits differ from paid.
Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash cheaper for output?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $3.75 per million output tokens, against $10 for Claude Sonnet 5 — roughly 2.7× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Sonnet 5: Standard $2/$10 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.20; 5-minute writes $2.50 and 1-hour writes $4. Batch $1/$5. US-only inference adds 10% where supported. Batch supports 300K output with output-300k-2026-03-24; standard stays 128K. Knowledge cutoff Jan 2026; retirement not sooner than June 30, 2027. Gemini 3.6 Flash: Intro Standard $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026; $1.50/$7.50 from January 1, 2027. Output includes thinking tokens. Cached input $0.075, rising to $0.15; storage $0.50/MTok-hour, rising to $1. Batch/Flex input/output are $0.375/$1.875, rising to $0.75/$3.75. Priority $1.35/$6.75, rising to $2.70/$13.50. Grounding tools have separate charges and quotas; free-tier limits differ from paid.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for Claude Sonnet 5. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash support the same reasoning levels?
Claude Sonnet 5 exposes low, medium, high, xhigh, max, while Gemini 3.6 Flash exposes minimal, low, medium, high.
Should I use Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Both are classified in our balanced tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. Claude Sonnet 5 is a candidate for everyday generation; Gemini 3.6 Flash is a candidate for multimodal pipelines. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 per 1M tokens versus $2 for Claude Sonnet 5 — a 2.7x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Gemini 3.6 Flash takes 1.05M against 1M for Claude Sonnet 5 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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