Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 27B vs Gemini 4 Argon
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.
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5.5
72/100- ECI166.7
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 27B
66/100- ECI151.8
- Price$0.40 / $2.55
- Context262K
GoogleGemini 4 Argon
74/100- ECI166.1
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
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 · 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 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonClaude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Gemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingQwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.8 27B | Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 97 | 79 | 96 |
| Price | 25% | 20 | 49 | 20 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 37 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 72/100 | 66/100 | 74/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic | Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) | Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 166.7 (best) | 151.8 | 166.1 |
| ECI rank | #5 of 165 (best) | #54 of 165 | #7 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 95.6% | — | 96.4% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 88.8% (best) | — | 86.0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% | — | 100% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 46.5% | — | 76.0% (best) |
| 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 Anthropic API | Median of 49 providers | Official Google API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-sonnet-5-5 | — | gemini-4-argon |
| API providers | 34 | 53 (best) | 24 |
| Released | Sep 28, 2026 | Aug 14, 2026 | Oct 13, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 2026 | — | Mar 2026 |
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
- Qwen3.8 27B$9.10
- Gemini 4 Argon$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Sonnet 5.5, Qwen3.8 27B or Gemini 4 Argon?
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, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Qwen3.8 27B or Gemini 4 Argon?
Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.55 output per million tokens (median across 49 API providers). 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 $0.938 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 27B versus $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (4.3× as much) and $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (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 Claude Sonnet 5.5, Qwen3.8 27B 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 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 5.5 up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, 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; Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; 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?
Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon 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: Claude Sonnet 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.
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