Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro
Head-to-head evidence from 22 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); Gemini 3.1 Pro #83 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro share 22 comparable benchmark results. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 14 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 25 to Gemini 3.1 Pro.
Updated July 23, 2026- Shared results
- 22
- Claude Sonnet 5 only
- 14
- Gemini 3.1 Pro only
- 25
- Comparable categories
- 1 / 8
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemini 3.1 Pro only becomes the better choice if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 22 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 1 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 65.32 to 55.3. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in multimodal & grounded, where it averages 88.3 against 82.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is CharXiv, 88.3% to 80.2%.
Gemini 3.1 Pro is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $12.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 5. Claude Sonnet 5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Gemini 3.1 Pro is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | Claude Sonnet 5 | Δ | Gemini 3.1 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multimodal | Claude Sonnet 588.3 | Margin← 5.7 | Gemini 3.1 Pro82.6 |
| Agentic | Claude Sonnet 581.9 | MarginNo overlap | Gemini 3.1 ProNot measured |
| Coding | Claude Sonnet 576.7 | MarginNo overlap | Gemini 3.1 ProNot measured |
| Reasoning | Claude Sonnet 5Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Gemini 3.1 Pro77.1 |
| Knowledge | Claude Sonnet 557.4 | MarginNo overlap | Gemini 3.1 ProNot measured |
| Math | Claude Sonnet 5Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Gemini 3.1 Pro31.8 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
CharXiv
MultimodalA 88.3%B 80.2%Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 8.1CharXiv: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 88.3%; Gemini 3.1 Pro scored 80.2%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Claude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 output | Gemini 3.1 Pro$2 input / $12 output | Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower combined listed price. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Claude Sonnet 5Not available | Gemini 3.1 Pro109 tok/s | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Claude Sonnet 5Not available | Gemini 3.1 Pro29.71 s | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Claude Sonnet 51M | Gemini 3.1 Pro1M | Listed context windows are equal. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic21 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 80.4% | — | Not comparable |
| BrowseCompSource | 84.7% | — | Not comparable |
| HLE w/ toolsSource | 57.4% | — | Not comparable |
| OSWorld-VerifiedSource | 81.2% | — | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | 1607 | 965 | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | 46.7% | 21.4% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 55.4% | 23.3% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA BriefcaseSource | 1388 | — | Not comparable |
| AA AutomationBenchSource | 39.2% | 37.5% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource | 44.7% | 42.2% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA Harvey LABSource | 90.1% | 58.9% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA Tau3 BankingSource | 28.2% | 16.5% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| aaTerminalBench21Source | 80.5% | 73.8% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 57.8% | Not comparable |
| DeepSearchQASource | — | 69.7% | Not comparable |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | — | 95.6% | Not comparable |
| APEX-Agents-AASource | — | 32.0% | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | — | 56.87% | Not comparable |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | — | 13.3% | Not comparable |
| AA ITBenchSource | — | 30.3% | Not comparable |
| terminalBenchHardSource | — | 53.8% | Not comparable |
Coding12 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 85.2% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | 63.2% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE MultilingualSource | 78.3% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE MultimodalSource | 28.1% | — | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 80.4% | — | Not comparable |
| FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource | 42.7% | — | Not comparable |
| cursorBench32Source | 61.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Coding IndexSource | 71.5% | 68.8% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 53.6% | 58.9% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| LiveCodeBench ProSource | — | 82.9% | Not comparable |
| React Native EvalsSource | — | 78.9% | Not comparable |
| Vibe Code BenchSource | — | 32.03% | Not comparable |
Reasoning3 benchmarks
Knowledge11 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| HLESource | 57.4% | — | Not comparable |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | 43.2% | 45.4% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 53.4% | 46.5% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 91.1% | 94.1% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| AA-HLESource | 39.6% | 44.7% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | 15.3% | 32.9% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 38.3% | 55.3% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 37.3% | 49.9% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| GPQA-DSource | — | 94.3% | Not comparable |
| HealthBench HardSource | — | 20.6% | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (Text)Source | — | 71.5% | Not comparable |
Math2 benchmarks
Multilingual1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Global-MMLU-LiteSource | — | 93.2% | Not comparable |
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 5 wins10 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CharXivSource | 88.3% | 80.2% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| CharXiv w/o toolsSource | 77% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | 77.3% | 82.4% | Gemini 3.1 Pro leads |
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | 1314 | 1281 | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| MMMU-ProSource | — | 83.9% | Not comparable |
| ERQASource | — | 69.4% | Not comparable |
| SimpleVQASource | — | 72.4% | Not comparable |
| ScreenSpot ProSource | — | 84.4% | Not comparable |
| ZeroBenchSource | — | 29.0% | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (MM)Source | — | 81.3% | Not comparable |
Inst. Following1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-IFBenchSource | — | 77.1% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (2)
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro?
Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 65.32 to 55.3. The biggest single separator in this matchup is CharXiv, where the scores are 88.3% and 80.2%.
Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.1 Pro?
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.3 versus 82.6. Inside this category, Design Arena Website is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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