Claude Haiku 4.5 Max vs Gemini 2.5 Pro: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Haiku 4.5 Max and Gemini 2.5 Pro on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Haiku 4.5 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Gemini 2.5 Pro is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max is a multimodal model from Anthropic. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $15.98 per million input tokens and $80.37 per million output tokens, and averages 83.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $15.98 / 1M
- Output
- $80.37 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 83.8
- Open weights
- No
Gemini 2.5 Pro
Gemini 2.5 Pro is a multimodal model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $15.20 per million input tokens and $57.83 per million output tokens, and averages 81.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $15.20 / 1M
- Output
- $57.83 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 81.6
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $15.98 | $15.20 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $80.37 | $57.83 | B |
| Context window | 200,000 | 200,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 4,096 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 83.8 | 81.6 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1452.0 | 1455.0 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max wins 11, Gemini 2.5 Pro wins 1, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.6 | 83.6 | 3.0 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.3 | 76.5 | 3.8 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.0 | 70.2 | 3.8 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| HumanEval | 88.5 | 87.7 | 0.8 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| MATH-500 | 88.7 | 86.8 | 1.9 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 78.2 | 76.1 | 2.1 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.2 | 76.2 | 3.0 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| IFEval | 89.9 | 87.6 | 2.3 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 83.7 | 82.8 | 0.9 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.1 | 89.7 | 1.4 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| MMMU | 81.4 | 80.5 | 0.9 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1452.0 | 1455.0 | 3.0 | Gemini 2.5 Pro |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max costs about $32.08 per million tokens and Gemini 2.5 Pro costs about $25.86. Gemini 2.5 Pro is roughly 19% cheaper than Claude Haiku 4.5 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 200,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max wins 11, Gemini 2.5 Pro wins 1, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max leads Gemini 2.5 Pro by 2.2 points (83.8 versus 81.6).
The price picture favours Gemini 2.5 Pro. The context picture is effectively a tie. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Claude Haiku 4.5 Max for quality-sensitive work and Gemini 2.5 Pro for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
Choose Gemini 2.5 Pro if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Haiku 4.5 Max better than Gemini 2.5 Pro?
On the index average, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max leads Gemini 2.5 Pro by 2.2 points (83.8 versus 81.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Haiku 4.5 Max wins 11 benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Pro wins 1.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max or Gemini 2.5 Pro?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $25.86 per million tokens, versus $32.08 for Claude Haiku 4.5 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 200,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max is proprietary; Gemini 2.5 Pro is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Haiku 4.5 Max for quality-sensitive work and Gemini 2.5 Pro for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.