Comparison · prices as of 2026-07-04 · re-verified 2026-08-18
Claude Opus 4.5 vs Gemini 3 Pro
On price alone, Gemini 3 Pro (Google) runs about 56% cheaper than Claude Opus 4.5 for a typical chat workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day). Whether that's the right trade depends on the capability gap — the breakdown below shows where each one wins.
Price per million tokens
| Spec | Claude Opus 4.5 | Gemini 3 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Input / MTok | $5 | $2 |
| Output / MTok | $25 | $12 |
| Context window | 200K | 1M |
| Max output | 64K | 66K |
| Class | frontier | frontier |
Estimated monthly cost by workload
Same models, three realistic usage levels. The gap between them scales with volume, so the right pick can change as you grow.
| Workload | Claude Opus 4.5 | Gemini 3 Pro | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light — chatbot 0.5K in / 0.2K out · 200 req/day | $45.00 | $20.40 | Gemini 3 Pro |
| Typical — assistant 2K in / 0.5K out · 1K req/day | $675 | $300 | Gemini 3 Pro |
| Heavy — RAG / agent 8K in / 2K out · 5K req/day | $13,500 | $6,000 | Gemini 3 Pro |
Which should you pick?
- Cheapest overall: Gemini 3 Pro — about 56% less per month on a typical assistant workload.
- Gemini 3 Pro is cheaper on both input and output, so it stays cheaper whether your workload is prompt-heavy or generation-heavy.
- Largest context window: Gemini 3 Pro at 1M tokens vs 200K — the one to pick if you feed in whole documents or codebases.
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Opus 4.5 or Gemini 3 Pro cheaper?
Gemini 3 Pro is cheaper — roughly 56% less per month on a typical assistant workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day).
What do Claude Opus 4.5 and Gemini 3 Pro cost per million tokens?
Claude Opus 4.5 is $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output. Gemini 3 Pro is $2 input and $12 output. Prices are first-party API list rates as of 2026-07-04.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Opus 4.5 or Gemini 3 Pro?
Gemini 3 Pro does, at 1M tokens versus 200K for Claude Opus 4.5.
When should I choose Claude Opus 4.5 over Gemini 3 Pro?
Both are frontier-class models, so choose Claude Opus 4.5 when it measurably wins on your own evals or you prefer its provider (Anthropic); otherwise Gemini 3 Pro does the same job for less.
Related comparisons
Sources: Anthropic pricing · Google pricing. Run your own numbers in the cost calculator.