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Head-to-head comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic) and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (Google) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 28 September 2026

As of 28 September 2026, Claude Sonnet 5 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#24 vs #28); and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is 4× cheaper per output token ($2.50/1M vs $10.00/1M).

Which should you choose?

Choose Claude Sonnet 5 if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #24 against #28 (75.4 vs 71.5 points).
  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 2.
  • Arena coding is your yardstick — 1519 against 1503.
  • AA Intelligence Index is your yardstick — 38.2 against 22.2.
  • AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 41.3% against 18.8%.

Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite if…

  • API cost matters — $2.50/1M output tokens against $10.00/1M, about 4× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.30/1M against $2.00/1M.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite was listed 21 July 2026, Claude Sonnet 5 30 June 2026.

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
FieldClaude Sonnet 5AnthropicGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle
ModelCap Index position#24#28
Index score75.471.5
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$2.00$0.30
Output price / 1M tokens$10.00$2.50
Context window1M tokens1M tokens
Max output tokens128K66K
API providers listed52
Weight accessAPI onlyAPI only
Input modalitiesText, Image, FileText, Image, Video, File, Audio
First listed30 June 202621 July 2026
PublisherAnthropicGoogle

Evidence: 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards · 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

Public benchmark boards where Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a published result
BoardClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)15191513–1526High15031496–1510Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena AgentLMArena4.8%3.2%–6.4%High—Only one result
ARC-AGI-2ARC Prize Foundation—10.3%HighOnly one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis38.2Max22.2ReasoningClaude Sonnet 5
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis41.3%Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort18.8%ReasoningClaude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench 4.0Terminal-Bench (Laude Institute)12.4%9.4%–15.5%Claude Code · Max—Only one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: common questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

Claude Sonnet 5 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 28 September 2026: #24 against #28. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Claude Sonnet 5 cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is cheaper on output tokens: $2.50/1M against $10.00/1M. Input tokens are $2.00/1M for Claude Sonnet 5 and $0.30/1M for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $9.00 for Claude Sonnet 5 versus $1.85 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 79.4% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

Both publish a 1M-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

Arena coding: Claude Sonnet 5 1519, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1503 — Claude Sonnet 5 leads.

Are Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite open-weight models?

Claude Sonnet 5: API only. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: API only. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

ModelCap currently lists 5 API providers for Claude Sonnet 5 and 2 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 28 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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