Claude Opus 4.5 Max vs Gemini 3 Pro Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Opus 4.5 Max and Gemini 3 Pro Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Claude Opus 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Opus 4.5 Max
Claude Opus 4.5 Max is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $20.90 per million input tokens and $106.51 per million output tokens, and averages 87.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $20.90 / 1M
- Output
- $106.51 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.8
- Open weights
- No
Gemini 3 Pro Max
Gemini 3 Pro Max is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $20.57 per million input tokens and $112.92 per million output tokens, and averages 87.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $20.57 / 1M
- Output
- $112.92 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Opus 4.5 Max | Gemini 3 Pro Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $20.90 | $20.57 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $106.51 | $112.92 | A |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 16,384 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 87.8 | 87.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1501.9 | 1477.5 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Opus 4.5 Max wins 5, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.5 Max | Gemini 3 Pro Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 89.5 | 89.5 | 0.0 | Tie |
| GPQA Diamond | 84.6 | 81.8 | 2.8 | Claude Opus 4.5 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.5 | 76.6 | 2.9 | Claude Opus 4.5 Max |
| HumanEval | 91.7 | 91.9 | 0.2 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| MATH-500 | 94.2 | 92.1 | 2.1 | Claude Opus 4.5 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 89.3 | 89.6 | 0.3 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 80.6 | 83.6 | 3.0 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| IFEval | 94.5 | 94.7 | 0.2 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| TruthfulQA | 86.9 | 89.6 | 2.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 93.0 | 92.6 | 0.4 | Claude Opus 4.5 Max |
| MMMU | 82.3 | 84.4 | 2.1 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| Arena Elo | 1501.9 | 1477.5 | 24.4 | Claude Opus 4.5 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Opus 4.5 Max costs about $42.30 per million tokens and Gemini 3 Pro Max costs about $43.66. Claude Opus 4.5 Max is roughly 3% cheaper than Gemini 3 Pro Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Gemini 3 Pro Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 4.5 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.5 Max wins 5, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads Claude Opus 4.5 Max by 0.1 points (87.9 versus 87.8).
The price picture favours Claude Opus 4.5 Max. The context picture favours Gemini 3 Pro Max. 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 Gemini 3 Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and Claude Opus 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Claude Opus 4.5 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose Gemini 3 Pro Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Opus 4.5 Max better than Gemini 3 Pro Max?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads Claude Opus 4.5 Max by 0.1 points (87.9 versus 87.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Opus 4.5 Max wins 5 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 6.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 Max or Gemini 3 Pro Max?
Claude Opus 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $42.30 per million tokens, versus $43.66 for Gemini 3 Pro Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 3 Pro Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Claude Opus 4.5 Max has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Opus 4.5 Max is proprietary; Gemini 3 Pro Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and Claude Opus 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.