Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max vs Gemini 3 Pro Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $19.90 per million input tokens and $95.47 per million output tokens, and averages 87.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.90 / 1M
- Output
- $95.47 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.2
- 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 Sonnet 4.5 Max | Gemini 3 Pro Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.90 | $20.57 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $95.47 | $112.92 | A |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 65,536 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 87.2 | 87.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1474.9 | 1477.5 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max wins 5, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max | Gemini 3 Pro Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.1 | 89.5 | 3.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 84.4 | 81.8 | 2.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.2 | 76.6 | 3.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| HumanEval | 92.4 | 91.9 | 0.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| MATH-500 | 92.8 | 92.1 | 0.7 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 85.4 | 89.6 | 4.2 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 82.8 | 83.6 | 0.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| IFEval | 92.9 | 94.7 | 1.8 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| TruthfulQA | 87.3 | 89.6 | 2.3 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 93.1 | 92.6 | 0.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| MMMU | 82.0 | 84.4 | 2.4 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
| Arena Elo | 1474.9 | 1477.5 | 2.6 | Gemini 3 Pro Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max costs about $38.79 per million tokens and Gemini 3 Pro Max costs about $43.66. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is roughly 11% 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 Sonnet 4.5 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max wins 5, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max by 0.7 points (87.9 versus 87.2).
The price picture favours Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.5 Max better than Gemini 3 Pro Max?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Pro Max leads Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max by 0.7 points (87.9 versus 87.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max wins 5 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro Max wins 7.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max or Gemini 3 Pro Max?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $38.79 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 Sonnet 4.5 Max has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.