Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro: which should I use?
Claude Sonnet 5 costs 1.3× more per blended million tokens than Gemini 3.1 Pro. Gemini 3.1 Pro has the larger context window (2,000,000 tokens). Default to Gemini 3.1 Pro unless you specifically need Claude Sonnet 5's edge.
Spec comparison
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $3.00/M | $2.00/M ✓ |
| Price (output) | $15.00/M | $12.00/M ✓ |
| Blended price | $6.00/M | $4.50/M ✓ |
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 2,000,000 tokens ✓ |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision, audio |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Released | 2026-08 | 2026-02 |
| Speed | Not measured | 55 t/s |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $6.00 | $4.50 | $1.50 (1.3×) |
| 10,000,000 | $60.00 | $45.00 | $15.00 (1.3×) |
| 100,000,000 | $600.00 | $450.00 | $150.00 (1.3×) |
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 if…
- ✓Frontier intelligence at Sonnet economics
- ✓Fast interactive coding performance
- ✓Reliable structured output and extended thinking
- ✓Production workloads that need near-Opus quality with better speed and cost.
Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro if…
- ✓Largest context window of any current model (2M tokens)
- ✓Native audio and video understanding
- ✓Google Search grounding
- ✓Whole-codebase, whole-document, or long-video analysis in a single request.
Run this exact matchup right now
Send the same prompt to Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro FreeFAQ
Is Claude Sonnet 5 cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro?
Gemini 3.1 Pro is cheaper, at $4.50 per million blended tokens vs $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro?
Gemini 3.1 Pro has the larger context window: 2,000,000 tokens vs 500,000.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 replace Gemini 3.1 Pro for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Frontier intelligence at Sonnet economics (Claude Sonnet 5) vs Largest context window of any current model (2M tokens) (Gemini 3.1 Pro) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.
Neither of these? See Claude Sonnet 5 alternatives or Gemini 3.1 Pro alternatives.
Related
Pricing verified 2026-04-06. Specs verified 2026-08-08.