Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-5.6 Sol vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 4 Argon 74, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72, GPT-5.6 Sol 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 4 Argon
74/100- ECI166.1
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Sol
66/100- ECI162.6
- Price$4.00 / $20.00
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5.5
72/100- ECI166.7
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 4 Argon 74/100, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, GPT-5.6 Sol 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Gemini 4 Argon on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 · Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 · GPT-5.6 Sol 162.6
- Lowest priceGemini 4 Argon and Claude Sonnet 5.5Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 · GPT-5.6 Sol $8.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 ArgonGPT-5.6 Sol 1,050,000 · Gemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GPT-5.6 Sol: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 4 Argon | GPT-5.6 Sol | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 96 | 92 | 97 |
| Price | 25% | 20 | 7 | 20 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 80 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 74/100 | 66/100 | 72/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 166.1 | 162.6 | 166.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #7 of 165 | #12 of 165 | #5 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 96.4% (best) | 93.5% | 95.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 86.0% | 89.1% (best) | 88.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 76.0% (best) | 69.7% | 46.5% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 (best) | $4.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $10.00 (best) | $20.00 | $10.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.10 (best) | $0.40 | $0.10 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $4.00 (best) | $8.00 | $4.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $8.00 / $30.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official OpenAI API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-4-argon | gpt-5.6-sol | claude-sonnet-5-5 |
| API providers | 24 | 49 (best) | 34 |
| Released | Oct 13, 2026 | Jul 9, 2026 | Sep 28, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2026 | Feb 16, 2026 | Jun 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 4 Argon$40.00
- GPT-5.6 Sol$80.00
- Claude Sonnet 5.5$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 4 Argon, GPT-5.6 Sol or Claude Sonnet 5.5?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 4 Argon 74/100, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, GPT-5.6 Sol 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Gemini 4 Argon on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Argon, GPT-5.6 Sol or Claude Sonnet 5.5?
Gemini 4 Argon is cheaper at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); GPT-5.6 Sol costs $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $4.00 per million tokens for Gemini 4 Argon versus $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (1× as much) and $8.00 for GPT-5.6 Sol (2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 (#5 of 165), Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 (#7 of 165) and GPT-5.6 Sol 162.6 (#12 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (163.6–171.3 vs 163.1–170.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 95.6%, GPT-5.6 Sol 93.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.6 Sol 89.1%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 4 Argon 100%, GPT-5.6 Sol 100%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, GPT-5.6 Sol 69.7%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 4 Argon, GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5.5 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?
GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 Argon have the largest context windows (1,050,000 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5.5. Maximum output per response: Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, GPT-5.6 Sol up to 128,000, Claude Sonnet 5.5 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 4 Argon accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; GPT-5.6 Sol accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Gemini 4 Argon, GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Gemini 4 Argon is the newest, released Oct 13, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5 came out Sep 28, 2026; GPT-5.6 Sol came out Jul 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 4 Argon Mar 2026, GPT-5.6 Sol Feb 16, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Jun 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 Nov 2, 2026.
