CLAUDE.md · price reverts to £5
| Feature | Claude (Anthropic) | Gemini (Google) |
|---|---|---|
| Top model (May 2026) | Claude Opus 4.7 | Gemini 2.0 Ultra |
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 1M–2M tokens (Pro) |
| Coding quality | Excellent | Good |
| Reasoning | Excellent (extended thinking) | Good |
| Free API tier | ✗ No | ✓ Yes (Flash) |
| Image input | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video input | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Audio input | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Image generation | ✗ No | ✓ Imagen 3 |
| Google Workspace integration | ✗ | ✓ Native |
| Google Search grounding | ✗ | ✓ Built-in |
| Prompt caching | ✓ | ✗ |
| Extended thinking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Mid-tier input price | $3.00 / 1M tok | $0.35 / 1M tok (Flash) |
| Mid-tier output price | $15.00 / 1M tok | $1.05 / 1M tok (Flash) |
| Instruction following | Very precise | Good |
| Hallucination rate | Lower | Moderate |
| Model | Input (per 1M tok) | Output (per 1M tok) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 2.0 Flash | $0.10 | $0.40 | 1M |
| Gemini 1.5 Pro | $1.25 | $5.00 | 1M |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.80 | $4.00 | 200K |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 Popular | $3.00 | $15.00 | 200K |
| Claude Opus 4.7 Best | $15.00 | $75.00 | 200K |
Choose Claude if quality of output is your top priority — especially for coding, complex document analysis, or tasks where hallucinations are costly. Choose Gemini if you're cost-sensitive, deeply embedded in Google's ecosystem, or need video/audio inputs. For free-tier experimentation, Gemini Flash is unbeatable. For production work that demands reliable reasoning, Claude is the safer bet. Check the cost calculator to run your own numbers.
Is Claude better than Gemini for coding?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 outperforms Gemini 2.0 Flash/Pro on most coding benchmarks. Gemini 1.5 Pro's massive context window helps with very large codebases, but Claude's code quality and fewer hallucinated function names give it the edge.
Is Gemini cheaper than Claude?
Significantly cheaper in some tiers. Gemini 2.0 Flash is $0.10/M input vs Claude Haiku's $0.80/M — 8x cheaper. For high-volume, cost-sensitive tasks where quality is less critical, Gemini Flash is a strong choice. Use our pricing tool to estimate.
Does Gemini support longer contexts than Claude?
Yes. Gemini 1.5 Pro supports 1M–2M tokens vs Claude's 200K. However, retrieval accuracy can degrade on very long Gemini contexts ("lost in the middle" problem). Claude often performs more reliably within its 200K window for precise retrieval tasks.
Can I use Gemini for free?
Yes — Google AI Studio offers a free tier for Gemini Flash with generous rate limits for testing. Claude has no API free tier, though Claude.ai has a free consumer tier. For production, both require paid API plans.