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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Gemini 3.5 Flash

Head-to-head comparison across 2benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

40

VS

Gemini 3.5 Flash

88

1 categoriesvs1 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: Claude 3.5 Sonnet unranked · Gemini 3.5 Flash #7

Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

Gemini 3.5 Flash
49vs54.5

+5.5 difference

Knowledge

Claude 3.5 Sonnet
59.4vs58

+1.4 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Gemini 3.5 Flash

Price (per 1M tokens)

$3 / $15

$1.5 / $9

Speed

N/A

284.2 t/s

Latency (TTFT)

N/A

18.55s

Context Window

200K

1M

Quick Verdict

Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Gemini 3.5 Flash is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 88 to 40. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Gemini 3.5 Flash's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 54.5 against 49. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 59.4% to 92.2%. Claude 3.5 Sonnet does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.50 input / $9.00 output per 1M tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash. Gemini 3.5 Flash is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Gemini 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (3)

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 88 to 40. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 59.4% and 92.2%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 59.4 versus 58. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

Gemini 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 54.5 versus 49. Claude 3.5 Sonnet stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

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Last updated: May 20, 2026

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