Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon

As of October 21, 2026, Claude Opus 5.5 costs 100% more per input token than Gemini 4 Argon ($4.00 vs $2.00 per 1M) and has a 1,000,000-token context window versus 1,048,576. Gemini 4 Argon's price is introductory through November 30, 2026.

Prices from LiteLLM's price fileChecked October 21, 2026

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon side by side

Headline prices in US dollars per 1M tokens: each model's own lab where it sells it, otherwise its cheapest provider. Source: LiteLLM model price file, as of October 21, 2026.
	Claude Opus 5.5	Gemini 4 Argon
Input, per 1M tokens	$4.00	$2.00
Output, per 1M tokens	$20.00	$10.00
Cache read, per 1M tokens	$0.20	$0.10
Cache write, per 1M tokens	$5.00	–
Context window	1,000,000 tokens	1,048,576 tokens
Max output	128,000 tokens	1,048,576 tokens
Image input	Yes	Yes
Tool calling	Yes	Yes
Structured output (JSON)	Yes	Yes
Prompt caching	Yes	Yes
Reasoning	Yes	Yes
Providers on LiteLLM	8	3
Price shown is from	Anthropic	Google AI Studio, introductory until November 30, 2026
Added to LiteLLM	September 22, 2026	October 13, 2026

Cheapest provider for each

Claude Opus 5.5: Anthropic at $4.00 input and $20.00 output per 1M tokens (claude-opus-5-5)
Gemini 4 Argon: Google AI Studio at $2.00 input and $10.00 output per 1M tokens (gemini/gemini-4-argon)

Benchmark scores

From the Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub (CC BY 4.0), data as of October 13, 2026. Some results were run by Epoch and others collected by Epoch from each benchmark's own leaderboard, linked in the first column. Each model's best reported reasoning setting is shown in brackets. Higher is better. Only benchmarks with a score for both models are shown.
Benchmark	Claude Opus 5.5	Gemini 4 Argon
Overall
Epoch Capabilities Index	168.8	166.4
Coding and agents
FrontierCode	54.6% (medium)	47.5% (medium)
FrontierSWE	62.3% (max)	55.0% (high)
APEX-Agents	73.5% (max)	82.4%
Reasoning and knowledge
GPQA Diamond	90.6% (max)	96.4% (high)
ARC-AGI-2	93.3% (high)	91.3% (high)
SimpleQA Verified	72.2% (max)	76.0% (high)
Math
FrontierMath (tiers 1-3)	91.2% (max)	86.0% (high)
FrontierMath (tier 4)	95.0% (max)	78.0% (high)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	100.0% (max)	100.0% (high)

When to pick which

Pick Claude Opus 5.5 for

Available from 8 providers through LiteLLM, vs 3.

Pick Gemini 4 Argon for

Costs 50% less per input token: $2.00 vs $4.00 per 1M.
Returns up to 1,048,576 tokens per response, vs 128,000.

From differences in the data above only; where the data is equal, no reason is given.

Call Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon with LiteLLM

Both use the OpenAI format through LiteLLM, so switching is a model name change. Set each provider's API key in the environment first.

Python SDK

from litellm import completion

messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]

# Claude Opus 5.5
response = completion(model="claude-opus-5-5", messages=messages)

# Gemini 4 Argon
response = completion(model="gemini/gemini-4-argon", messages=messages)

# Claude Opus 5.5, falling back to Gemini 4 Argon if the call fails
response = completion(model="claude-opus-5-5", messages=messages, fallbacks=["gemini/gemini-4-argon"])

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon?

Gemini 4 Argon is cheaper at 3 input tokens per output token: $4.00 per 1M tokens blended ($2.00 input, $10.00 output), versus $8.00 ($4.00 and $20.00) for Claude Opus 5.5, as of October 21, 2026.

Which has the larger context window, Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon?

Gemini 4 Argon has the larger context window: 1,048,576 tokens, versus 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 5.5.

Can I switch from Claude Opus 5.5 to Gemini 4 Argon without changing my code?

Yes. Through LiteLLM both use the OpenAI format, so switching means changing the model name from "claude-opus-5-5" to "gemini/gemini-4-argon", or pointing a LiteLLM gateway model alias at the other model. You can also use one as a fallback for the other.