Gemini 4 Argon vs Qwen3.8 27B vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 4 Argon 74, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72, Qwen3.8 27B 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 4 Argon
74/100- ECI166.1
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 27B
66/100- ECI151.8
- Price$0.40 / $2.55
- Context262K
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, Qwen3.8 27B 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability, Qwen3.8 27B on price and Gemini 4 Argon for long inputs. 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 · Qwen3.8 27B 151.8
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 27BQwen3.8 27B $0.938 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Claude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingQwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 4 Argon | Qwen3.8 27B | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 96 | 79 | 97 |
| Price | 25% | 20 | 49 | 20 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 37 | 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 | Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 166.1 | 151.8 | 166.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #7 of 165 | #54 of 165 | #5 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 96.4% (best) | — | 95.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 86.0% | — | 88.8% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% | — | 100% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 76.0% (best) | — | 46.5% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $0.40 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $10.00 | $2.55 (best) | $10.00 |
| Cached input | $0.10 | — | $0.10 |
| Blended (3:1) | $4.00 | $0.938 (best) | $4.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 49 providers | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 32,768 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-4-argon | — | claude-sonnet-5-5 |
| API providers | 24 | 53 (best) | 34 |
| Released | Oct 13, 2026 | Aug 14, 2026 | Sep 28, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 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
- Qwen3.8 27B$9.10
- Claude Sonnet 5.5$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 4 Argon, Qwen3.8 27B 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, Qwen3.8 27B 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability, Qwen3.8 27B on price and Gemini 4 Argon for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Argon, Qwen3.8 27B or Claude Sonnet 5.5?
Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.55 output per million tokens (median across 49 API providers). Gemini 4 Argon costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.938 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 27B versus $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (4.3× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (4.3× 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 Qwen3.8 27B 151.8 (#54 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.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 4 Argon, Qwen3.8 27B 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?
Gemini 4 Argon has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, 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; Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 4 Argon and Claude Sonnet 5.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 4 Argon is the newest, released Oct 13, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5 came out Sep 28, 2026; Qwen3.8 27B came out Aug 14, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 4 Argon Mar 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.
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