Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads Gemini 3 Flash Preview on coding, 57.3 to 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs 5.0x less per output token ($3.00 vs $15.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 53 benchmarks have a result for both.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Gemini 3 Flash Preview: which to pick
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 43.7 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for output tokens 5.0x cheaper ($3.00 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $1.68).
- Shared results
- 53
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 only
- 65
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 18
- 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 Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 57.3 against 43.7.
5 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 30.1 against 26.3.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a AA Agentic Index result, 31.8.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 87.9% against 85.6%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 95.6% against 92.3%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 88.6% against 87.3%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 1284 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 Sonnet 4.6 $0.011, 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 Sonnet 4.6 $1.68, Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 57.3 from 5 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 14.6 points apart on average over 12 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 55.8% against Gemini 3 Flash Preview 20.2%, 35.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 $15.00 against Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 per million output tokens, 5.0x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.6 | Bars | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 11 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 7 | ||
| Math | 1 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 7 | ||
| Web design | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 4 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 32 | 21 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index72
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 75.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveBench coding | 66.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1523 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 63.0 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 82.1% | 85.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 77.4% | 75.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 55.8% | 20.2% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 39.9% | 6.4% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.5% | 0.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 57.3% | 53.9% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 49.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 90.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SciCode | 50.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 53.0% | 38.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Terminal-Bench | 53.4% | 64.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierCode | 24.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 9.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | 66.1% | 61.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 1367.2 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1503 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1491 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1512 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1527 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1529 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 12.7% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 30.1 | 26.3 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 152.8 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index111
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 31.8 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1190 | 1111 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1213 | 1063 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1212 | 1090 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1197 | 1051 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1226 | 1161 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1177 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1036 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveBench research | 63.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 68.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 23.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 51.0% | 42.5% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 25.8% | 11.8% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 38.5% | 18.3% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 60.2% | 26.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 79.5% | 80.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| APEX-Agents | 43.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 9.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| BALROG | Not measured | 48.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 54.9% | 49.8% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| OSWorld | 72.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $7,204 | $3,635 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index27
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 85.6% | 87.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LiveBench reasoning | 86.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.6% | 87.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 87.5% | 89.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.6% | 36.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 87.4% | 89.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ARC-AGI | 86.5% | 84.7% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | 33.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 61.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | 23.0% | 39.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Mystery game puzzles | 16.0% | 26.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| VPCT | Not measured | 72.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1485 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1500 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1493 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1306 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1311 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 92.3% | 95.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| 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 | 85.8% | 95.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 51.2% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 17.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProofBench | 45.0% | 15.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: math | 1462 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1483 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 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 index27
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.3% | 88.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 82.1% | 86.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 64.0% | 55.8% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 65.3% | 66.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 77.1% | 73.9% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 67.7% | 68.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 92.1% | 95.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.9% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 35.5% | 66.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1474 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1451 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1470 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1464 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 37.0% | 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 Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1284 | 1196 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1269 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1258 | 1166 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1278 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1234 | 1183 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1275 | 1189 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1196 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1235 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench design | 71.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index42
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 62.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 46.6% | 51.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.9% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 60.6% | 52.2% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| IFBench | 56.6% | 78.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.0% | 78.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| DTBench | 89.9% | 89.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMCA | 46.5% | 43.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ExploitBench | 23.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1458 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1476 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1435 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1283 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1472 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1440 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1491 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1428 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1420 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1410 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1465 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1464 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1440 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1443 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1464 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1479 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1444 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1431 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1298 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1307 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1296 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1248 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1195 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1272 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1482 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.6 | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 17, 2026 | December 17, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $15.00 | $3.00 |
| Coding index | 57.3 | 43.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.68 | $0.37 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 better than Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding?
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 43.7 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview. Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for output tokens 5.0x cheaper ($3.00 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $1.68).
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 and $3.00. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $1.68 and Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview comparison based on?
53 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6's coding index rests on 5 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.