Gemini 3 Pro Preview vs Claude Sonnet 5
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3 Pro Preview 67, Claude Sonnet 5 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 3 Pro Preview
67/100- ECI153.0
- Price$2.00 / $12.00
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5
66/100- ECI156.3
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 3 Pro Preview 67/100, Claude Sonnet 5 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5 for raw capability and Gemini 3 Pro Preview for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 · Gemini 3 Pro Preview 153.0
- Lowest priceClaude Sonnet 5Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 · Gemini 3 Pro Preview $4.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3 Pro PreviewGemini 3 Pro Preview 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 5 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3 Pro PreviewGemini 3 Pro Preview: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Claude Sonnet 5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3 Pro Preview | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 82 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 19 | 21 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 67/100 | 66/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3 Pro PreviewGoogle | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 153.0 | 156.3 (best) |
| ECI rank | #39 of 148 | #23 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 92.6% (best) | 90.5% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 65.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 91.4% | 94.7% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 72.9% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 33.7% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $12.00 | $10.00 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.20 |
| Blended (3:1) | $4.50 | $4.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | claude-sonnet-5 |
| API providers | 3 | 38 (best) |
| Released | Nov 18, 2025 | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Jan 31, 2026 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 3 Pro Preview$44.00
- Claude Sonnet 5$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3 Pro Preview or Claude Sonnet 5?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 3 Pro Preview 67/100, Claude Sonnet 5 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5 for raw capability and Gemini 3 Pro Preview for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Pro Preview or Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). Gemini 3 Pro Preview costs $2.00 input / $12.00 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $4.00 per million tokens for Claude Sonnet 5 versus $4.50 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview (1.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 (#23 of 148) and Gemini 3 Pro Preview 153.0 (#39 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (153.6–158.8 vs 150.6–155.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3 Pro Preview 92.6%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%, Gemini 3 Pro Preview 91.4%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3 Pro Preview has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3 Pro Preview up to 65,536, Claude Sonnet 5 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3 Pro Preview accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Claude Sonnet 5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 3 Pro Preview handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Gemini 3 Pro Preview and Claude Sonnet 5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Sonnet 5 is the newest, released Jun 30, 2026. Gemini 3 Pro Preview came out Nov 18, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3 Pro Preview Jan 2025, Claude Sonnet 5 Jan 31, 2026.
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.
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