Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Sonnet 5
94
Gemini 3.5 Flash
85
Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 unranked · Gemini 3.5 Flash #11
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemini 3.5 Flash only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Agentic
+4.6 difference
Coding
+8.7 difference
Knowledge
+0.6 difference
Claude Sonnet 5
Gemini 3.5 Flash
$3 / $15
$1.5 / $9
N/A
284.2 t/s
N/A
18.55s
1M
1M
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemini 3.5 Flash only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 94 to 85. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 63.2 against 54.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HLE, 57.4% to 40.2%. Gemini 3.5 Flash does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Claude Sonnet 5 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.
Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 94 to 85. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HLE, where the scores are 57.4% and 40.2%.
Gemini 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 58 versus 57.4. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 63.2 versus 54.5. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.8 versus 77.2. Inside this category, GDPval-AA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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