Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking benchmark

Name: Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) and Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (Google) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is ahead by 34 points (1,524 vs 1,490; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 resolves 70.1% versus 66.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking streams faster (115 tok/s) while Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking is the cheaper output token ($0.4/1M). Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Workhorse Anthropic model: most of Opus coding quality at a mid-tier price.

Elo 1,524$15/1M out

Google

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Google experimental reasoning model that visualizes thoughts in real-time.

Elo 1,490$0.4/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (4)vsGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (6)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 4W (40%)Overall: Gemini 2.0 Flash ThinkingGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 6W (60%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,524vs1,490

Coding Elo

1,531vs1,515

SWE-bench

70.1%vs66.8%

LiveBench

67.4%vs67%

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs81%

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 4WGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 1W

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs115 tok/s

Time to first token

240 msvs220 ms

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 2W

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.4/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.1/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking 3/6

Preference Elo

Claude Sonnet 4.5

34 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

27 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

$14.60/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+2%1,524

EloHigh is better

1,490

Code Elo

High is better

+1%1,531

Code EloHigh is better

1,515

LiveBench

High is better

+1%67.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

67%

SWE-bench

High is better

+5%70.1%

SWE-benchHigh is better

66.8%

GPQA

High is better

80.2%

GPQAHigh is better

81%+1%

TTFT

Low is better

240 ms

TTFTLow is better

220 ms+9%

Speed

High is better

88 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

115 tok/s+31%

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$0.1/1M+2900%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$0.4/1M+3650%

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

1M+5%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 97% with Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Sonnet 4.5$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking$9.50 / mo

In: $3.50Out: $6.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking is estimated to save $320.50/month ($3,846/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Sonnet 4.5:Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking:Pick Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking:Pick Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4.5

Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).

High-volume chatGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Lower output list price ($0.4/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Lower TTFT (220 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).
High-volume chat	Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Lower output list price ($0.4/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Lower TTFT (220 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchFeb 18, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Most of Opus 4.5 coding at a mid-tier price. Sonnet 5 replaced it as the buy; 4.5 remains a compare baseline.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Elo 1,524

LiveBench67.4%

SWE-bench70.1%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Google

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Elo 1,490

LiveBench67%

SWE-bench66.8%

Speed115 tok/s

Output cost$0.4/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,524). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads SWE-bench at 70.1% vs 66.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking output tokens are $0.4/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking?: Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking has the lower time-to-first-token (220 ms vs 240 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 4.5 matchups →|All Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking matchups →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 (next sonnet)Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking vs Gemini 2.5 Flash (next gemini-flash)Gemini 3.7 Flash vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Gemini 3 Pro vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (4)vsGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (6)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 4W (40%)Overall: Gemini 2.0 Flash ThinkingGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 6W (60%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,524vs1,490

Coding Elo

1,531vs1,515

SWE-bench

70.1%vs66.8%

LiveBench

67.4%vs67%

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs81%

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 4WGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 1W

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs115 tok/s

Time to first token

240 msvs220 ms

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 2W

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.4/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.1/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4.5

Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).

High-volume chatGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Lower output list price ($0.4/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Lower TTFT (220 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).
High-volume chat	Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Lower output list price ($0.4/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Lower TTFT (220 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,524). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads SWE-bench at 70.1% vs 66.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking output tokens are $0.4/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking?

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking has the lower time-to-first-token (220 ms vs 240 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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Claude Sonnet 4.5

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons