Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Claude Opus 4.6
Google vs Anthropic · Prices checked 12 August 2026
There is a 3.3× price gap here. Gemini 3.6 Flash blends to $3.30 per million tokens; Claude Opus 4.6 to $11.00. A single 100K-input, 10K-output job costs $0.225 on Gemini 3.6 Flash against $0.750 on Claude Opus 4.6.
Gemini 3.6 Flash reads more in one request: 1,050,000 tokens of context against 1,000,000. Gemini 3.6 Flash was released Jul 2026; Claude Opus 4.6 Nov 2025.
Pricing and capacity
| Metric | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Claude Opus 4.6 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M tokens | $1.50 | $5.00 | 3.3× |
| Output / 1M tokens | $7.50 | $25.00 | 3.3× |
| Blended · 70/30calculated | $3.30 | $11.00 | 3.3× |
| Blended · 50/50calculated | $4.50 | $15.00 | 3.3× |
| Blended · 80/20calculated | $2.70 | $9.00 | 3.3× |
| Blended · 20/80calculated | $6.30 | $21.00 | 3.3× |
| Job cost · 100K + 10Kcalculated | $0.225 | $0.750 | 3.3× |
| Job cost · 1M + 100Kcalculated | $2.25 | $7.50 | 3.3× |
| Context window | 1,050,000 | 1,000,000 | 5% |
Input and output rates are as published by each provider. Blended and job-cost rows are calculated comparison metrics, not published prices — how they are derived.
Benchmarks
These two models do not currently report scores on any of the same benchmark suites, so there is no like-for-like capability comparison to show. Rather than pad the page with one-sided numbers, the benchmark leaderboards list every score we do hold.
What each model is for
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Google · Balanced
Google's current workhorse model, released July 2026 as the practical successor to 3.5 Flash rather than the long-delayed 3.5 Pro. It improves on coding, knowledge work and multimodal handling while reducing token usage by up to 17%, which makes it cheaper to run than its predecessor on the same task even before the headline rate is compared.
- Up to 17% fewer tokens per task than 3.5 Flash
- Coding and knowledge work
- Multimodal input including audio and video
- 1M-token context
Claude Opus 4.6
Anthropic · Previous
The flagship of the Claude 4 generation. 1M-token context is GA, and Opus 4.6 leads on agentic coding, long-horizon reasoning and tool-use reliability.
- Agentic coding (Claude Code)
- 1M-token context, GA
- Tool use & function calling
- Multi-step reasoning
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Claude Opus 4.6?
There is a 3.3× price gap here. Gemini 3.6 Flash blends to $3.30 per million tokens; Claude Opus 4.6 to $11.00. A single 100K-input, 10K-output job costs $0.225 on Gemini 3.6 Flash against $0.750 on Claude Opus 4.6. Blended cost weights input at 70% and output at 30%; price your own token split for an exact answer, since the cheaper model on a blended basis is not always cheaper for your workload.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Claude Opus 4.6?
Gemini 3.6 Flash reads more in one request: 1,050,000 tokens of context against 1,000,000. The context window caps everything in a single request: prompt, retrieved documents, conversation history and the model’s own output all share it.
Can I compare Gemini 3.6 Flash and Claude Opus 4.6 on my own numbers?
Yes. Open both in the side-by-side comparison tool to see every field at once, or use the token calculator to price your actual prompt and monthly request volume against each model. Both are free and need no sign-up.
Price it for your own workload
Related matchups
Terms used on this page
Prices and scores are recomputed on every deploy from the catalogue. Prices checked 12 August 2026.