Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemma 4 26B A4B
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads Gemma 4 26B A4B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 56.0 to 16.7, and Gemma 4 26B A4B costs 16.7x less per output token ($0.60 vs $10.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 43 benchmarks have a result for both.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B: which to pick
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a coding score, 87.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Gemma 4 26B A4B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B for output tokens 16.7x cheaper ($0.60 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by LMArena Vision: creative writing, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 43
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 only
- 55
- Gemma 4 26B A4B only
- 12
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads, 56.0 against 16.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemma 4 26B A4B has a AA Agentic Index result, 2.9.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1327.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a Vals Index result, 70.8%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes 1M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Claude Sonnet 5.5 $0.0070, Gemma 4 26B A4B $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 87.3 from 5 benchmarks, Gemma 4 26B A4B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 34.8 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: Claude Sonnet 5.5 1768 against Gemma 4 26B A4B 1360, 58.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 $10.00 against Gemma 4 26B A4B $0.60 per million output tokens, 16.7x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes 1M tokens, Gemma 4 26B A4B 262K.
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 5.5 | Bars | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 7 | 0 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 19 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 42 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index70
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 94.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1768 | 1360 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 39.3 | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 64.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 92.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 6.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 83.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 83.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 58.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 59.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SciCode | 61.0% | 40.0% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 25.0% | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 35.2% | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1819.1 | 927.2 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1513 | 1446 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1504 | 1454 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1817 | 1351 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1741 | 1362 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1737 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SciCode | 13.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | 95.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 56.0 | 16.7 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 166.2 | 141.9 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 2.9 | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1305 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1260 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1271 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench research | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 84.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 78.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 30.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 58.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 42.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 10.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 75.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 81.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 47.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vals Science Index | 59.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 43.6% | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SpireClimb | 1.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $11,165 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 91.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 49.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 79.2% | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 55.0% | 19.3% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 95.6% | 73.2% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Chess puzzles | 59.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 65.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1494 | 1438 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1531 | 1447 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1502 | 1448 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1329 | 1264 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1331 | 1293 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 37.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | 82.2% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 88.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 80.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ProofBench | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1497 | 1470 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1510 | 1475 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 52.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1483 | 1446 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1464 | 1428 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1483 | 1457 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1468 | 1429 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | Not measured | 42.7% | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1327 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1369 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1472 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1382 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1442 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1365 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench design | 85.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index191
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 59.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 67.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 91.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 72.4% | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.7% | 65.7% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| DTBench | 97.3% | 74.9% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMCA | 68.3% | 29.7% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Furniture assembly | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1473 | 1434 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1492 | 1420 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1467 | 1400 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision | 1287 | 1260 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1484 | 1444 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1456 | 1421 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1535 | 1495 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1499 | 1460 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1451 | 1415 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1454 | 1434 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1465 | 1441 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1495 | 1427 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1474 | 1405 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1461 | 1403 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1289 | 1256 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1312 | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1297 | 1268 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1272 | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1297 | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1191 | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1242 | 1256 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | 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
Gemma 4 26B A4B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemma 4 26B A4B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemma 4 26B A4B 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 5.5 | Google Gemma 4 26B A4B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 28, 2026 | April 3, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.60 |
| Coding index | 87.3 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Gemma 4 26B A4B for coding?
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a coding score, 87.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Gemma 4 26B A4B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B for output tokens 16.7x cheaper ($0.60 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by LMArena Vision: creative writing, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.15 and $0.60. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?
Claude Sonnet 5.5, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemma 4 26B A4B comparison based on?
43 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5's coding index rests on 5 independent benchmarks and Gemma 4 26B A4B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.