Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Claude Sonnet 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5
Gemini 2.5 Pro comes out ahead, 63 to 55 and 51 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Pro
63/100- ECI145.3
- Price$1.25 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
51/100- ECI141.7
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
- Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
55/100- ECI146.8
- 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 Claude Sonnet 4.5 (55) and Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.5 146.8 · Gemini 2.5 Pro 145.3 · Claude Sonnet 4 141.7
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.5 Pro $3.44 · Claude Sonnet 4 $6.00 · Claude Sonnet 4.5 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.5 Pro 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 4 200,000 · Claude Sonnet 4.5 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.5 Pro: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Claude Sonnet 4: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Sonnet 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Claude Sonnet 4 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 72 | 68 | 74 |
| Price | 25% | 24 | 13 | 13 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 32 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 63/100 | 51/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | Claude Sonnet 4Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.3 | 141.7 | 146.8 (best) |
| ECI rank | #78 of 148 | #94 of 148 | #64 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 85.3% (best) | 79.2% | 82.3% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 24.6% (best) | — | 23.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 84.7% (best) | 71.1% | 77.8% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 57.6% | — | 71.3% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 30.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.25 (best) | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| Output | $10.00 (best) | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Cached input | $0.125 (best) | — | $0.30 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.44 (best) | $6.00 | $6.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $2.50 / $15.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 9 providers | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 64,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-pro | — | claude-sonnet-4-5 |
| API providers | 22 | 9 | 28 (best) |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | May 22, 2025 | Sep 29, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | Jul 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
- Claude Sonnet 4$60.00
- Claude Sonnet 4.5$60.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Sonnet 4 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.5 (55) and Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Sonnet 4 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is cheaper at $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); Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.44 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Pro versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4 (1.7× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.5 146.8 (#64 of 148), Gemini 2.5 Pro 145.3 (#78 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 (#94 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (145.3–148.5 vs 143.6–146.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 2.5 Pro 85.3%, Claude Sonnet 4.5 82.3%, Claude Sonnet 4 79.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 2.5 Pro 84.7%, Claude Sonnet 4.5 77.8%, Claude Sonnet 4 71.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 4 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 4.5 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 200,000 for Claude Sonnet 4.5. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Pro up to 65,536, Claude Sonnet 4 up to 64,000, Claude Sonnet 4.5 up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Pro accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Claude Sonnet 4 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Sonnet 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 2.5 Pro handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the newest, released Sep 29, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Pro came out Jun 17, 2025; Claude Sonnet 4 came out May 22, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Pro Jan 2025, Claude Sonnet 4 Mar 31, 2025, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Jul 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.
