Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)
In this head-to-head showdown, Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is more budget-friendly at $0.34/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.
Anthropic workhorse. Official $2/$10 per 1M tokens made permanent on Aug 10 2026.
Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it). Preview until a second source matches.
Speed, cost, and intelligence tradeoffs across the Anthropic lineup
Single model data
No latency data
$0.33999999999999997 / 1M output
Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.
Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.
Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.
Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy
Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness
Cost per million tokens and max context window length
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B | Advantage Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preference Elo | — | — | |
| Coding Elo | — | — | |
| LiveBench | — | — | |
| SWE-bench | — | — | |
| GPQA Diamond | — | — | |
| Time to first token | — | — | |
| Output speed | 118 tok/s | — | — |
| Input price | $0.07/1M | Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B (+$1.93/1M) | |
| Output price | $0.34/1M | Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B (+$9.66/1M) | |
| Context window | Claude Sonnet 5 (+738k) |
Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).
Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is estimated to save $212.45/month ($2,549/year).
Need SWE-bench on both sides.
Lower output list price ($0.34/1M).
Need TTFT on both sides.
Larger window (1M).
Claude Sonnet 5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.
| Target Workload | Recommended Pick | Evaluation Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Repo / coding agents | insufficient data | Need SWE-bench on both sides. |
| High-volume chat | Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B | Lower output list price ($0.34/1M). |
| Voice / low-latency UI | insufficient data | Need TTFT on both sides. |
| Long-document RAG | Claude Sonnet 5 | Larger window (1M). |
| Screenshots / vision | Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog. |
Usually Sonnet 5 vs Opus 5. Coding delta versus output $/1M. The workhorse question.
Aug 10 2026 made the $2/$10 list permanent. Sonnet is the default Claude unless the repo is actually on fire.
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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The real PNG is generated at /compare/claude-sonnet-5-vs-gemma-4-26b-a4b-it/opengraph-image for crawlers.
Verified head-to-head card
