Claude Opus 4.6 vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Claude Opus 4.6 leads Gemini 3 Flash Preview on coding, 57.2 to 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs 8.3x less per output token ($3.00 vs $25.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 51 benchmarks have a result for both.
Claude Opus 4.6 or Gemini 3 Flash Preview: which to pick
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 43.7 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for output tokens 8.3x cheaper ($3.00 vs $25.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $1.56).
- Shared results
- 51
- Claude Opus 4.6 only
- 59
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 20
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Opus 4.6 scores 57.2 against 43.7.
4 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Opus 4.6 leads, 31.9 against 26.3.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Opus 4.6 leads, 89.7% against 87.9%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Tied at 95.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Opus 4.6 leads, 89.1% against 88.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Opus 4.6 leads, 1291 against 1196.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Claude Opus 4.6 $0.018, Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.0020 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Claude Opus 4.6 $1.56, Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Opus 4.6 57.2 from 4 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 15.6 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Claude Opus 4.6 57.6% against Gemini 3 Flash Preview 20.2%, 37.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Opus 4.6 $25.00 against Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 per million output tokens, 8.3x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Opus 4.6 takes 1M tokens, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 1.05M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Claude Opus 4.6 | Bars | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 6 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 7 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 6 | 4 | ||
| Math | 3 | 1 | 1 tie | |
| Knowledge | 4 | 6 | ||
| Web design | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 3 | 2 | 1 tie | |
| All shared boards | 34 | 15 | 2 ties |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index62
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.6% | 75.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 72.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1547 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 84.7% | 85.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 78.2% | 75.0% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 57.6% | 20.2% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 6.4% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.9% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 90.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 48.5% | 38.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Terminal-Bench | 79.8% | 64.3% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| FrontierCode | 26.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| GSO-Bench | 41.2% | 9.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| WeirdML | 78.0% | 61.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Cybench | 93.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 1367.2 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1534 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1527 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1539 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1559 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1543 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 12.7% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 31.9 | 26.3 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.7 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1206 | 1110 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1220 | 1063 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1207 | 1090 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1196 | 1050 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1161 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1212 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1036 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.5% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.3% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 92.1% | 80.4% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| APEX-Agents | 46.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| METR time horizons | 78.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 4.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| BALROG | Not measured | 48.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 55.3% | 49.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $8,018 | $3,635 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index64
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 89.7% | 87.9% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.9% | 87.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.6% | 89.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.9% | 36.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.5% | 89.4% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| ARC-AGI | 94.0% | 84.7% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 69.2% | 33.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| SimpleBench | 67.6% | 61.1% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | 39.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Mystery game puzzles | 25.0% | 26.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| EBR-bench | 12.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| VPCT | Not measured | 72.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1525 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1544 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1530 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1340 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1337 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | 95.6% | Tie |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 93.3% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 97.0 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 97.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 94.4% | 95.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 66.0% | 51.2% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 26.8% | 17.1% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| ProofBench | 50.0% | 15.0% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: math | 1518 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1525 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index46
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 89.1% | 88.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.3% | 86.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 62.1% | 55.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 67.0% | 66.4% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 76.0% | 73.9% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.5% | 68.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.4% | 95.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 49.1% | 55.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 47.0% | 66.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1519 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1504 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1512 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1497 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 41.5% | 63.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1291 | 1196 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1284 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1278 | 1166 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1279 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1274 | 1184 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1289 | 1189 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1228 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1255 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index32
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.6% | 51.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 86.7% | 69.9% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 52.2% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| IFBench | 53.1% | 78.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 78.0% | Tie |
| DTBench | 91.2% | 89.1% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| LMCA | 55.8% | 43.1% | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| CL-bench | 20.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 28.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1501 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1521 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1505 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1316 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1511 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1488 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1551 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1500 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1488 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1464 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1512 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1510 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1497 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1499 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1511 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1518 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1502 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1492 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1324 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1370 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1326 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1314 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1274 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1331 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1507 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Anthropic Claude Opus 4.6 | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 4, 2026 | December 17, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $5.00 | $0.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $25.00 | $3.00 |
| Coding index | 57.2 | 43.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.56 | $0.37 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Opus 4.6 better than Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding?
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 43.7 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview. Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for output tokens 8.3x cheaper ($3.00 vs $25.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $1.56).
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 and $3.00. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Opus 4.6 costs $1.56 and Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.6 or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Opus 4.6 vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview comparison based on?
51 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Claude Opus 4.6's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Gemini 3 Flash Preview's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.