Anthropic vs 
Google
Verdict
- Anthropic's flagship leads: Claude Opus 5.5 at 72.6 vs Gemini 4 Argon at 70.7.
- Anthropic has the better model in 3 of 4 price bands.
- Google's fastest ranked model (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, 430 tok/s) beats Anthropic's (Claude Haiku 5.5, 190 tok/s).
- Google publishes more open-weights models (17 vs 0).
- Google ships more often: one model every 15 days against every 39.
Best model per price band
Each provider’s highest-index model below the price ceiling. Purple marks the winner of the band.
| Price band | Anthropic | |
|---|---|---|
| Under $0.50/M | Claude Haiku 5.5 xhigh 61.5$0.200/M | Gemma 4 26B A4B 56.2$0.198/M |
| Under $2/M | Claude Haiku 5.5 xhigh 61.5$0.200/M | Gemini 3.8 Flash high 64.4$1.50/M |
| Under $10/M | Claude Opus 5.5 max 72.6$8.00/M | Gemini 4 Argon high 70.7$4.00/M |
| Any price | Claude Opus 5.5 max 72.6$8.00/M | Gemini 4 Argon high 70.7$4.00/M |
Line-up
| Metric | Anthropic | |
|---|---|---|
| Flagship index | 72.6 | 70.7 |
| Ranked models | 23 | 40 |
| Open-weights models | 0 | 17 |
| Cheapest ranked, $/M | $0.200 | $0.040 |
| Fastest ranked, tok/s | 190 | 430 |
| Release cadence, days | 39 | 15 |
| Last release | 7 Oct 2026 | 6 Oct 2026 |
| Next expected | 30 Oct 2026 – 30 Nov 2026 | 15 Oct 2026 – 27 Oct 2026 |