Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
| Characteristic | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | |
| Release Date | June 30, 2026 | July 21, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 64K | 66K |
| Input Price / 1M | $2.00 | $0.30 |
| Output Price / 1M | $10.00 | $2.50 |
| Average Score | 0.6 | 0.0 |
Verdict
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite leads in 2 out of 3 comparison categories.
API Cost
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 4.3x cheaper: input $0.30/1M vs $2.00/1M tokens.
Context Window
Same context size: 1M tokens.
Recency
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is newer: released 7/21/2026 vs 6/30/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Direct comparison on the SWE-Bench benchmark is not available. We recommend reviewing other metrics on the comparison page.
Which model is cheaper — Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper for input: $0.30 per 1M tokens vs $2.00.
Which has a larger context window — Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Claude Sonnet 5 supports a larger context: 1,000,000 tokens vs 1,000,000.
The Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.