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Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash leads Claude Sonnet 5 on coding, 62.5 to 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.6 Flash costs 2.7x less per output token ($3.75 vs $10.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 104 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Sonnet 5 Replace Gemini 3.6 Flash
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic
Coding
57.7
Overall
63.2
Output $/M
$10.00
44
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle
Coding
62.5
Overall
68.3
Output $/M
$3.75
58
vs boards won of 104 shared, 2 tied

Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash: which to pick

Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding: it scores 62.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 57.7 for Claude Sonnet 5, though on 4 benchmarks against 6.

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for work measured by LMArena WebDev or AA Coding Index, where it leads.

Model AClaude Sonnet 5Anthropic57.7/1006 independent benchmarks$1.87 per solved taskModel BGemini 3.6 FlashGoogle62.5/1004 independent benchmarks$1.49 per solved task
Shared results
104
Claude Sonnet 5 only
17
Gemini 3.6 Flash only
5
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.

At a glance

Coding index
Claude Sonnet 5 57.7 from 6 benchmarks, Gemini 3.6 Flash 62.5 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 10.7 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
ProofBench: Claude Sonnet 5 77.0% against Gemini 3.6 Flash 36.0%, 41.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Sonnet 5 $10.00 against Gemini 3.6 Flash $3.75 per million output tokens, 2.7x apart.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5 takes 1M tokens, Gemini 3.6 Flash 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryClaude Sonnet 5BarsGemini 3.6 FlashTies
Coding1262 ties
Intelligence20
Agentic work132
Reasoning39
Math42
Knowledge38
Web design16
General625
All shared boards44582 ties
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index126
Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
LiveBench coding74.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena WebDev15401538Claude Sonnet 5
AA Coding Index71.569.2Claude Sonnet 5
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)82.4%88.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)79.6%79.6%Tie
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)10.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)81.3%64.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Code migration (Vals AI)44.4%30.9%Claude Sonnet 5
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%0.0%Tie
IOI (Vals AI)45.0%35.1%Claude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)74.5%73.8%Claude Sonnet 5
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)13.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)46.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)70.3%45.4%Claude Sonnet 5
SciCode54.3%53.4%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierCode42.7%34.4%Claude Sonnet 5
GSO-Bench37.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
WeirdML68.8%56.1%Claude Sonnet 5
ALE-Bench1463.1715.5Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: coding14831491Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT14741492Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena WebDev: React15411528Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: HTML15271547Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena WebDev: from an image15401545Gemini 3.6 Flash
SciCode10.7%10.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
AA Intelligence Index38.234.0Claude Sonnet 5
Epoch Capabilities Index156.9154.5Claude Sonnet 5
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index132
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
AA Agentic Index43.629.0Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building web apps12451197Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps12491181Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps12151198Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building Android apps12271204Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1225Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building games12271180Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: HTML slides11681099Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides11911121Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: spreadsheets10351071Gemini 3.6 Flash
LiveBench research82.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LiveBench browser72.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LiveBench long agentic39.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SREBench (Vals AI)0.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)53.9%56.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)29.4%18.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)41.8%25.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)66.3%65.4%Claude Sonnet 5
BioMysteryBench (Vals AI)Not measured58.5%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)5.7%4.3%Claude Sonnet 5
APEX-Agents54.5%46.9%Claude Sonnet 5
Vending-Bench 2$6,378Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index39
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
GPQA Diamond88.9%93.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LiveBench reasoning88.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.0%88.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)91.1%92.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)41.3%40.8%Claude Sonnet 5
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)90.5%94.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ARC-AGINot measured91.2%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured60.4%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
SimpleBench60.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Chess puzzles45.0%42.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Mystery game puzzles35.0%30.0%Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: hard prompts14611486Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: expert14891490Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14641484Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: diagrams12931314Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: homework13111314Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index42
Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
OTIS Mock AIME94.7%94.2%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 365.6%58.9%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierMath, tier 429.3%22.0%Claude Sonnet 5
ProofBench77.0%36.0%Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: math14671508Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work14811492Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index38
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
MMLU Pro87.5%89.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LegalBench (Vals AI)83.9%86.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
CorpFin (Vals AI)67.0%63.3%Claude Sonnet 5
TaxEval (Vals AI)75.6%74.9%Claude Sonnet 5
MortgageTax (Vals AI)70.0%67.6%Claude Sonnet 5
MedCode (Vals AI)47.5%53.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
SimpleQA Verified33.7%66.2%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: science14601489Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14421469Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government14541479Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance14361464Gemini 3.6 Flash
FACTS Benchmark SuiteNot measured65.3%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index16
Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
Design Arena: websites12741300Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: UI components12771294Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: game dev12771263Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: data viz12511289Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: 3D12611271Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: all code categories12751289Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: SVG1192Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: ASCII art12071281Gemini 3.6 Flash
LiveBench design82.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index625
General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
LiveBench data analysis71.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)66.0%56.6%Claude Sonnet 5
SAGE (Vals AI)48.9%48.7%Claude Sonnet 5
MedScribe (Vals AI)76.0%79.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Vals Multimodal Index68.8%65.1%Claude Sonnet 5
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)82.0%80.0%Claude Sonnet 5
DTBench92.5%95.5%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMCA50.0%44.9%Claude Sonnet 5
Surface Evolver Bench60.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Furniture assemblyNot measured23.3%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
LMArena Text14421480Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following14521467Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing14161466Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision12731299Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: English14501482Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English14311470Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese14781531Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: German14421480Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese14221475Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean14121429Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: French14631503Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish14381476Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian14501488Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish14251473Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: multi-turn14531481Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries14621475Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language14361470Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14111456Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: English12751295Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: Chinese13311357Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: reading text12881312Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: humor12611289Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: creative writing12461278Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Document14661456Claude Sonnet 5
Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Gemini 3.6 FlashLeader
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

Claude Sonnet 5$0.0070Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.0026Fits in one request

Gemini 3.6 Flash costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5$0.130Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.049Fits in one request

Gemini 3.6 Flash costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5$0.500Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.188Fits in one request

Gemini 3.6 Flash 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.

Specifications of Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Sonnet 5Google Gemini 3.6 Flash
MakerAnthropicGoogle
WeightsNo public weights listedNo public weights listed
ReleasedJune 30, 2026July 21, 2026
Context window1M1.05M
Input $/Mtok$2.00$0.75
Output $/Mtok$10.00$3.75
Coding index57.762.5
Independent measurements behind it64
Cost per solved task$1.87$1.49
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding?

Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding: it scores 62.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 57.7 for Claude Sonnet 5, though on 4 benchmarks against 6. Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for work measured by LMArena WebDev or AA Coding Index, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 and $3.75. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $1.87 and Gemini 3.6 Flash $1.49.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash comparison based on?

104 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and Gemini 3.6 Flash's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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