Claude Sonnet 4 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceGemini 2.5 Pro
Gemini 2.5 Pro is roughly 1.5× cheaper on output tokens ($10.00 vs $15.00 per 1M).
- Context windowGemini 2.5 Pro
Gemini 2.5 Pro accepts 2.1M tokens vs 200K, 10.5× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesGemini 2.5 Pro
Gemini 2.5 Pro supports 4 modalities (text, vision, audio, video) vs 2 for Claude Sonnet 4.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Gemini 2.5 Pro edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Claude Sonnet 4's 0. Gemini 2.5 Pro is roughly 1.5× cheaper on output tokens ($10.00 vs $15.00 per 1M). Gemini 2.5 Pro accepts 2.1M tokens vs 200K, 10.5× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude Sonnet 4 handles text, vision while Gemini 2.5 Pro handles text, vision, audio, video, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
Claude Sonnet 4 is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Gemini 2.5 Pro, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Sonnet 4 is usually picked for coding llm and rag workloads, while Gemini 2.5 Pro sees more deployments in long context and rag. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4 | Gemini 2.5 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Released | May 2025 | Mar 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision, audio, video |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 2.1M tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $1.25 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $10.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-03 | 2025-01 |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs $18.75
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs $188
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs $248
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $31.50 vs $18.75 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $315 vs $188 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $540 vs $248 per month, model B comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Claude Sonnet 4$1.05
- Gemini 2.5 Pro$0.625
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,86.0
- GPQA,84.0
- SWE-bench Verified65.0
Claude Sonnet 4 fits when…
- Solid all-rounder
- Mature deployment ecosystem
Gemini 2.5 Pro fits when…
- 2M-token context window
- Strong on long-document tasks
- Native multimodal handling
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 1.5× cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4 on output tokens.
- Long-context tasks, handles 2.1M tokens vs 200K for Claude Sonnet 4.
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude Sonnet 4 or Gemini 2.5 Pro cheaper?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is cheaper at $10.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $15.00 / 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 4.Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Pro accepts 2.1M tokens vs 200K for Claude Sonnet 4.Is Claude Sonnet 4 or Gemini 2.5 Pro better for coding?
Both Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 2.5 Pro are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 2.5 Pro released?
Claude Sonnet 4 was released by Anthropic on 2025-05-22. Gemini 2.5 Pro was released by Google on 2025-03-25.
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