Gemini 4 Argon vs Claude Opus 5.5
Google's new frontier model is not generally available yet. Its introductory price matches Sonnet 5.5, its announced standard price matches Opus 5.5. Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon in one table: list price, context window, output limit, cutoff and release date, with a cost calculator for your own monthly volume.
| Spec | Gemini 4 Argon | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google DeepMind | Anthropic |
| Released | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-22 |
| Input / 1M tokens | $2.00 | $4.00 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $10.00 | $20.00 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.100 | $0.200 |
| Batch input / output | not published | $2.00 / $10.00 |
| Context window | not published | 1M |
| Max output | 1M | 128K |
| Knowledge cutoff | not published | 2026-06 |
| Image input | yes | yes |
| API ID | gemini-4-argon | claude-opus-5-5 |
| Status | Announced | Generally available |
Cost at your volume
list price, per monthPaste your usage instead of typing
Paste a line from a provider invoice, a usage dashboard, or an API response. We look for input and output token counts (JSON keys like input_tokens, prompt_tokens, completion_tokens, or text like "1.2M in, 300k out"). Nothing leaves your browser.
Examples that work: {"usage":{"input_tokens":1200000,"output_tokens":300000}} · 1.2M in, 300k out · GPT-6.1 Sol: 2.4B input tokens, 310M output tokens
Same token counts on both sides. Real bills differ: tokenizers differ, reasoning models bill thinking tokens as output, and caching or batch discounts apply differently. Rank all models →
Pick Argon if…
- Cost matters most: $12.00 vs $24.00 per 1M in + 1M out, 50% less.
- You generate very long outputs: 1M max output vs 128K.
- Your workload is cache-heavy: cached input is $0.100 vs $0.200 per 1M.
- You are already on Google DeepMind's stack (Fairwind Program (trusted testers only)).
- You can wait: announced as of 2026-10-08.
Pick Opus 5.5 if…
- You have evals showing it beats Argon on your task by more than the 50% price gap.
- You need the larger context window (1M tokens).
- You are already on Anthropic's stack (Claude.ai (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise), Claude Code, Claude API).
- Anthropic says it performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 on most work and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5 at default settings.
Price difference, in words
Per million tokens, Gemini 4 Argon lists at $2.00 in / $10.00 out, against $4.00 / $20.00 for Claude Opus 5.5. That is 2.0× on input and 2.0× on output, or 50% less for a job that uses one million tokens each way ($12.00 vs $24.00).
With prompt caching, the gap moves: cached input is $0.100 on Argon and $0.200 on Opus 5.5. Agent loops that re-send a large system prompt every turn pay mostly cached-input rates.
Benchmarks both vendors published
Only rows where both models have a number from a cited source. Vendor-reported; settings may differ between sources.
| Benchmark | Argon | Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-bench 4.0 | 57.4% | 66.4% |
- Google blog: Gemini 4 Argon announcement read 2026-10-08
date, pricing, output limit, availability - Google DeepMind Gemini model page (Argon benchmark table) read 2026-10-08
benchmarks (vendor-reported) - Gemini API pricing (ai.google.dev) read 2026-10-08
Argon absent; Gemini 3.1 Pro price for comparison
- Claude Opus 5.5 model page (platform.claude.com) read 2026-10-08
release date, model IDs, context, output, pricing, cutoff - Anthropic pricing page read 2026-10-08
cache, batch, fast mode prices - Anthropic announcement: Claude Opus 5.5 read 2026-10-08
benchmarks (vendor-reported), availability, claims vs Opus 5