Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT comes out ahead, 71 to 66 and 60 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemma 4 26B A4B IT
71/100- ECI142.0
- Price$0.112 / $0.40
- Context262K
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
66/100- ECI142.2
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
ByteDance SeedSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct
60/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context524K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is our pick
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (66) and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (60). It leads on capability. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityGemma 4 26B A4B ITShared benchmarks: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 77.7% · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 69.5% · Claude Haiku 4.5 68.9%
- Lowest priceGemma 4 26B A4B ITGemma 4 26B A4B IT $0.184 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
- Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: Text, Images · Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingGemma 4 26B A4B IT and Seed-OSS-36B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 67% | 78 | 69 | 70 |
| Inputs & features | 20% | 70 | 80 | 35 |
| Context window | 13% | 37 | 32 | 49 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 66/100 | 60/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | Seed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.0 | 142.2 (best) | — |
| ECI rank | #103 of 165 | #102 of 165 (best) | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 73.2% (best) | 71.2% | 71.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 82.2% (best) | 66.7% | 67.5% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 13.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.112 (best) | $1.00 | — |
| Output | $0.40 (best) | $5.00 | — |
| Cached input | — | $0.10 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.184 (best) | $2.00 | — |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | — |
| Price source | Median of 26 providers | Official Anthropic API | — |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 200,000 tokens | 524,288 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 64,000 tokens | 524,288 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | gemma-4-26b-a4b-it | claude-haiku-4-5 | — |
| API providers | 29 | 48 (best) | — |
| Released | Apr 2, 2026 | Oct 15, 2025 | Aug 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Feb 28, 2025 | Jul 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT$1.92
- Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
- Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (66) and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (60). It leads on capability. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper at $0.112 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (median across 26 API providers). Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.184 per million tokens for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (11× as much). Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 77.7%, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 69.5% and Claude Haiku 4.5 68.9%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 73.2%, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 71.5%, Claude Haiku 4.5 71.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 82.2%, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 67.5%, Claude Haiku 4.5 66.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT, Claude Haiku 4.5 and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 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?
Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has the largest context window at 524,288 tokens, against 262,144 for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT up to 32,768, Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT accepts text and images; Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 4.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the newest, released Apr 2, 2026. Claude Haiku 4.5 came out Oct 15, 2025; Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct came out Aug 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct Jul 2024.
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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