Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1

Anthropic's mid-tier against Google's multimodal flagship (ultra · pro tiers) — published pricing, context windows and specs, side by side.

Compiled by AI Model Hub · Last updated 8 July 2026 · All figures from the two models' AI Model Hub pages (vendor release materials and independent trackers)

At a glance: Claude Sonnet 5 lists at $2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard with a 1,000,000 tokens context window; Gemini 3.1 lists at ~$2 / $12 per 1M tokens (3.1 Pro) with 2,000,000 tokens of context. The full spec table, price table and each model's published benchmarks are below.

On this page

Side-by-side specs
Price comparison
What the table says
FAQ

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1: side-by-side

	Claude Sonnet 5	Gemini 3.1
Maker	Anthropic	Google
Released	30 June 2026	April 2026
Tier	Mid-tier	Multimodal flagship (Ultra · Pro tiers)
Context window	1,000,000 tokens (default & max)	2,000,000 tokens — largest publicly available
Max output	Up to 128,000 tokens	Not specified
API price (per 1M)	$2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard	~$2 / $12 per 1M tokens (3.1 Pro)
Access	Proprietary — Claude API & claude.ai (default model on Free & Pro plans)	Proprietary — Gemini API (Google) · consumer plan $19.99/month
Best at	Agentic coding, high-volume production work, large-codebase tasks	Multimodal understanding, very long documents, media analysis
Standout	1M context by default; early-access partners report it finishes tasks earlier Sonnets stopped short on and checks its own output	Native video, audio and text in one pass + sandboxed Python execution

Price comparison

Model	Input (per 1M)	Output (per 1M)
Claude Sonnet 5 (intro, to 31 Aug 2026)	$2.00	$10.00
Claude Sonnet 5 (standard, from 1 Sep 2026)	$3.00	$15.00
Gemini 3.1 Pro (approx.)	~$2.00	~$12.00

Estimate your monthly API cost for Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1 with the LLM API pricing calculator →

What the table says

Pricing. Claude Sonnet 5 lists at $2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard; Gemini 3.1 lists at ~$2 / $12 per 1M tokens (3.1 Pro). On these published rates, Claude Sonnet 5's input price is roughly 1x lower than Gemini 3.1's, and Claude Sonnet 5's output price is roughly 1.2x lower than Gemini 3.1's. Claude Sonnet 5's standard rate card from 1 September 2026 is $3 / $15 per 1M tokens.
Context. Gemini 3.1's context window (2,000,000 tokens — largest publicly available) is about 2x the size of Claude Sonnet 5's (1,000,000 tokens (default & max)).
Access. Both are proprietary, hosted-API models; neither publishes weights for self-hosting.

Key takeaway

Everything above is drawn from the two models' published rate cards and spec sheets. Which one fits depends on the workload you price it against — run your own token volumes through the pricing calculator to see the monthly difference.

Full Claude Sonnet 5 overview Full Gemini 3.1 overview

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.1?

Claude Sonnet 5 — it lists at $2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard versus ~$2 / $12 per 1M tokens (3.1 Pro) for Gemini 3.1 (Gemini 3.1 Pro pricing is approximate).

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.1?

Gemini 3.1 — 2,000,000 tokens — largest publicly available, versus 1,000,000 tokens (default & max) for Claude Sonnet 5.

Which model is newer?

Claude Sonnet 5 is the more recent release (30 June 2026); Gemini 3.1 was released April 2026.

Can I run Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.1 locally?

No — both Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.1 are proprietary models accessed through their vendors' APIs and apps; neither publishes weights.

Related comparisons

Sources & further reading: