Claude Opus 4.5 vs Gemini 3 Pro Turbo: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Opus 4.5 and Gemini 3 Pro Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.5 has the stronger average benchmark score; Claude Opus 4.5 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Opus 4.5
Claude Opus 4.5 is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $19.42 per million input tokens and $75.27 per million output tokens, and averages 87.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.42 / 1M
- Output
- $75.27 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 87.7
- Open weights
- No
Gemini 3 Pro Turbo
Gemini 3 Pro Turbo is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $19.62 per million input tokens and $89.91 per million output tokens, and averages 86.4 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.62 / 1M
- Output
- $89.91 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 86.4
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Opus 4.5 | Gemini 3 Pro Turbo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.42 | $19.62 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $75.27 | $89.91 | A |
| Context window | 400,000 | 400,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 4,096 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 87.7 | 86.4 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1491.2 | 1494.9 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Opus 4.5 wins 8, Gemini 3 Pro Turbo wins 4, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.5 | Gemini 3 Pro Turbo | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.0 | 85.6 | 1.4 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.7 | 81.0 | 0.7 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.1 | 77.4 | 0.3 | Gemini 3 Pro Turbo |
| HumanEval | 93.7 | 90.3 | 3.4 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| MATH-500 | 93.7 | 92.4 | 1.3 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| AIME 2025 | 89.8 | 82.8 | 7.0 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| LiveCodeBench | 85.0 | 82.7 | 2.3 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| IFEval | 92.5 | 93.4 | 0.9 | Gemini 3 Pro Turbo |
| TruthfulQA | 88.1 | 87.8 | 0.3 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| HellaSwag | 92.4 | 94.6 | 2.2 | Gemini 3 Pro Turbo |
| MMMU | 84.2 | 82.7 | 1.5 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
| Arena Elo | 1491.2 | 1494.9 | 3.7 | Gemini 3 Pro Turbo |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Opus 4.5 costs about $33.38 per million tokens and Gemini 3 Pro Turbo costs about $37.19. Claude Opus 4.5 is roughly 10% cheaper than Gemini 3 Pro Turbo. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 400,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.5 wins 8, Gemini 3 Pro Turbo wins 4, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Claude Opus 4.5 leads Gemini 3 Pro Turbo by 1.3 points (87.7 versus 86.4).
The price picture favours Claude Opus 4.5. 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 Opus 4.5 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Claude Opus 4.5 if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose Gemini 3 Pro Turbo if
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Opus 4.5 better than Gemini 3 Pro Turbo?
On the index average, Claude Opus 4.5 leads Gemini 3 Pro Turbo by 1.3 points (87.7 versus 86.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Opus 4.5 wins 8 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Turbo wins 4.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 or Gemini 3 Pro Turbo?
Claude Opus 4.5 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $33.38 per million tokens, versus $37.19 for Gemini 3 Pro Turbo.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 400,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Opus 4.5 is proprietary; Gemini 3 Pro Turbo is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Opus 4.5 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.