Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Claude Sonnet 4
Gemini 2.5 Pro comes out ahead, 63 to 51 and 51 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 235B-A22B is 2.8× cheaper per token.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Pro
63/100- ECI145.3
- Price$1.25 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B
51/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.70 / $2.80
- Context131K
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
51/100- ECI141.7
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
Gemini 2.5 Pro is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51) and Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 2.5 ProCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Pro 145.3 · Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4
- Lowest priceQwen3 235B-A22BQwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Gemini 2.5 Pro $3.44 · Claude Sonnet 4 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.5 Pro 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 4 200,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.5 Pro: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text · Claude Sonnet 4: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Qwen3 235B-A22B | Claude Sonnet 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 72 | 65 | 68 |
| Price | 25% | 24 | 46 | 13 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 35 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 24 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 63/100 | 51/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Sonnet 4Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.3 (best) | 139.4 | 141.7 |
| ECI rank | #78 of 148 (best) | #103 of 148 | #94 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 85.3% (best) | 70.7% | 79.2% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 24.6% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 84.7% (best) | — | 71.1% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 57.6% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.25 | $0.70 (best) | $3.00 |
| Output | $10.00 | $2.80 (best) | $15.00 |
| Cached input | $0.125 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.44 | $1.23 (best) | $6.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $2.50 / $15.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Alibaba API | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-pro | qwen3-235b-a22b | — |
| API providers | 22 (best) | 7 | 9 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 | May 22, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 2.5 Pro$32.50
- Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
- Claude Sonnet 4$60.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Pro, Qwen3 235B-A22B or Claude Sonnet 4?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51) and Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Qwen3 235B-A22B or Claude Sonnet 4?
Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Gemini 2.5 Pro costs $1.25 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price); Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.23 per million tokens for Qwen3 235B-A22B versus $3.44 for Gemini 2.5 Pro (2.8× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4 (4.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 2.5 Pro scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Pro 145.3 (#78 of 148), Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 (#94 of 148) and Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (143.6–146.9 vs 139.2–142.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 2.5 Pro 85.3%, Claude Sonnet 4 79.2%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B and Claude Sonnet 4 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Pro leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Pro has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Sonnet 4 and 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Pro up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, Claude Sonnet 4 up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Pro accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; Claude Sonnet 4 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 2.5 Pro handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude Sonnet 4 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Claude Sonnet 4 came out May 22, 2025; Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Pro Jan 2025, Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, Claude Sonnet 4 Mar 31, 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
