Gemini 4 Argon vs Qwen3.8 Max vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 4 Argon 74, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72, Qwen3.8 Max 69). 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 Max
69/100- ECI158.0
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
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 Max 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability, Qwen3.8 Max 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 Max 158.0
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · 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 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Claude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 4 Argon | Qwen3.8 Max | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 96 | 86 | 97 |
| Price | 25% | 20 | 26 | 20 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 90 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 74/100 | 69/100 | 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 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 166.1 | 158.0 | 166.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #7 of 165 | #22 of 165 | #5 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 96.4% (best) | 92.7% | 95.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 86.0% | 74.7% | 88.8% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% (best) | 99.4% | 100% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 76.0% (best) | 45.8% | 46.5% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $10.00 | $6.00 (best) | $10.00 |
| Cached input | $0.10 (best) | $0.25 | $0.10 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $4.00 | $3.00 (best) | $4.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Alibaba API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · xhigh | 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 | qwen3.8-max | claude-sonnet-5-5 |
| API providers | 24 | 28 | 34 (best) |
| Released | Oct 13, 2026 | Aug 3, 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 Max$32.00
- Claude Sonnet 5.5$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 4 Argon, Qwen3.8 Max 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 Max 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability, Qwen3.8 Max 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 Max or Claude Sonnet 5.5?
Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (1.3× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (1.3× 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 Max 158.0 (#22 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%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 4 Argon, Qwen3.8 Max 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 Qwen3.8 Max and 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5.5. Maximum output per response: Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, 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 Max accepts text, images, PDFs 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?
No. Gemini 4 Argon, Qwen3.8 Max 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; Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 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.
