Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 68, Claude Opus 5 66, Claude Opus 4.6 61). The right pick depends on what you value most.
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.6
61/100- ECI155.3
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context1M
- Anthropic
Claude Opus 5
66/100- ECI162.9
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context1M
GoogleGemini 3.1 Pro Preview
68/100- ECI154.8
- Price$2.00 / $12.00
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 68/100, Claude Opus 5 66/100, Claude Opus 4.6 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Opus 5 for raw capability, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview on price and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Opus 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5 162.9 · Claude Opus 4.6 155.3 · Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 154.8
- Lowest priceGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGemini 3.1 Pro Preview $4.50 · Claude Opus 4.6 $10.00 · Claude Opus 5 $10.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGemini 3.1 Pro Preview 1,048,576 · Claude Opus 4.6 1,000,000 · Claude Opus 5 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewClaude Opus 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Opus 5: Text, Images, PDFs · Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Opus 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 85 | 94 | 84 |
| Price | 25% | 2 | 2 | 19 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 60 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 61/100 | 66/100 | 68/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 155.3 | 162.9 (best) | 154.8 |
| ECI rank | #27 of 148 | #5 of 148 (best) | #31 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 90.5% | 93.9% | 94.4% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% | 85.6% (best) | 59.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 94.4% | 98.9% (best) | 95.6% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 78.7% (best) | — | 75.6% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 47.0% | 59.9% | 73.5% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $5.00 | $5.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $25.00 | $25.00 | $12.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.50 | $0.50 | $0.20 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $10.00 | $10.00 | $4.50 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $18.00 |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Anthropic API | Official Google API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-opus-4-6 | claude-opus-5 | gemini-3.1-pro-preview |
| API providers | 33 | 35 (best) | 26 |
| Released | Feb 5, 2026 | Jul 24, 2026 | Feb 19, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 31, 2025 | May 2026 | Jan 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Opus 4.6$100.00
- Claude Opus 5$100.00
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview$44.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 68/100, Claude Opus 5 66/100, Claude Opus 4.6 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Opus 5 for raw capability, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview on price and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is cheaper at $2.00 input / $12.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $4.50 per million tokens for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview versus $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.6 (2.2× as much) and $10.00 for Claude Opus 5 (2.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Opus 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5 162.9 (#5 of 148), Claude Opus 4.6 155.3 (#27 of 148) and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 154.8 (#31 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (160.2–166.7 vs 153.4–157.3), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 94.4%, Claude Opus 5 93.9%, Claude Opus 4.6 90.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Opus 5 85.6%, Claude Opus 4.6 66.0%, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 59.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 5 98.9%, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 95.6%, Claude Opus 4.6 94.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 73.5%, Claude Opus 5 59.9%, Claude Opus 4.6 47.0%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Opus 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 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 3.1 Pro Preview has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 4.6 and 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 5. Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 4.6 up to 128,000, Claude Opus 5 up to 128,000, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Opus 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Opus 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 5 is the newest, released Jul 24, 2026. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview came out Feb 19, 2026; Claude Opus 4.6 came out Feb 5, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 4.6 May 31, 2025, Claude Opus 5 May 2026, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Jan 2025.
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.
