ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon

Claude Haiku 5.5 comes out ahead, 83 to 74 and 72 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Released Sep 28, 2026New

    72/100
    • ECI166.7
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 5.5
  2. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 5.5

    Released Oct 7, 2026New

    83/100
    • ECI160.4
    • Price$0.10 / $0.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 5.5

  3. Google

    Gemini 4 Argon

    Released Oct 13, 2026New

    74/100
    • ECI166.1
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 4 Argon
01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 5.5 is our pick

Claude Haiku 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Gemini 4 Argon (74) and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (72). It leads on price. Gemini 4 Argon wins on inputs & features. 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 · Claude Haiku 5.5 160.4
  • Lowest priceClaude Haiku 5.5Claude Haiku 5.5 $0.20 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 · Claude Haiku 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonClaude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Haiku 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Gemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Sonnet 5.5Claude Haiku 5.5Gemini 4 Argon
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%978996
Price25%208020
Inputs & features15%8080100
Context window10%606061
Overall100%72/10083/10074/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Sonnet 5.5AnthropicClaude Haiku 5.5AnthropicGemini 4 ArgonGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)166.7 (best)160.4166.1
ECI rank#5 of 165 (best)#14 of 165#7 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions95.6%89.7%96.4% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics88.8% (best)75.1%86.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics100% (best)98.9%100% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions46.5%23.8%76.0% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.10 (best)$2.00
Output$10.00$0.50 (best)$10.00
Cached input$0.10$0.01 (best)$0.10
Blended (3:1)$4.00$0.20 (best)$4.00
Long-context rateSame rateOver 100K: $0.50 / $2.50Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output128,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesYesYes
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-sonnet-5-5claude-haiku-5-5gemini-4-argon
API providers34 (best)3324
ReleasedSep 28, 2026Oct 7, 2026Oct 13, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJun 2026Jun 2026Mar 2026
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Claude Sonnet 5.5$40.00
  • Claude Haiku 5.5$2.00
  • Gemini 4 Argon$40.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon?

Claude Haiku 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Gemini 4 Argon (74) and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (72). It leads on price. Gemini 4 Argon wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon?

Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.20 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 5.5 versus $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (20× as much) and $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (20× 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 Claude Haiku 5.5 160.4 (#14 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%, Claude Haiku 5.5 89.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%, Claude Haiku 5.5 75.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Claude Haiku 5.5 98.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%, Claude Haiku 5.5 23.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon 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 1,000,000 for Claude Haiku 5.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 5.5 up to 128,000, Claude Haiku 5.5 up to 128,000, Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Haiku 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Gemini 4 Argon accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Gemini 4 Argon is the newest, released Oct 13, 2026. Claude Haiku 5.5 came out Oct 7, 2026; Claude Sonnet 5.5 came out Sep 28, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Jun 2026, Claude Haiku 5.5 Jun 2026, Gemini 4 Argon Mar 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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