Choose Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 if…
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Google: Gemini 4 Argon
Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the pick when you generate long outputs in one go, Google: Gemini 4 Argon when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $3.00 | $2.00 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $15.00 | $10.00 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $6.00 | $4.00 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 8% | 15% |
| Context window | 1M tokens (~1,500 pages) | 1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 69% | 81% |
| Max output per response | 128K tokens (~96,000 words) | 66K tokens (~49,200 words) |
| Input types | text, image, file | audio, file, image, text, video |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-02-17 | 2026-10-13 |
What it costs for real workloads
Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.
| Workload (per month) | Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $525 | $350 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon saves $175 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $510 | $340 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon saves $170 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens) | $540 | $360 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon saves $180 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $330 | $220 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon saves $110 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $165 | $110 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon saves $55.00 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Google: Gemini 4 Argon | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | return JSON that validates against your schema |
| Reasoning / thinking mode | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems |
| Image input | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | read screenshots, charts and scanned pages |
| Audio input | — | ✓ Yes | take speech or audio directly |
| File / PDF input | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | accept documents without your own parsing step |
| Image output | — | — | generate images, not just text |
| Built-in web search | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | answer from live web results |
| Seed (reproducible sampling) | — | ✓ Yes | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | — | — | read token confidence for classification and scoring |
From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.
Price history
- Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
- Google: Gemini 4 Argon: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-10-14.
Which should you choose?
Choose Google: Gemini 4 Argon if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 33% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($350 vs $525 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need audio input — to take speech or audio directly; Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 does not advertise it
- you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 does not advertise it
- you want the newer model — released 2026-10-13, 8 months after the other
Frequently asked questions
Is Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 better than Google: Gemini 4 Argon?
Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the pick when you generate long outputs in one go, Google: Gemini 4 Argon when cost matters at scale. In short: Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 when you generate long outputs in one go; Google: Gemini 4 Argon when cost matters at scale, you need audio input, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you want the newer model.
Which is cheaper, Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Google: Gemini 4 Argon?
Google: Gemini 4 Argon is cheaper: $4.00 vs $6.00 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 33% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $350 against $525.
How much do Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Google: Gemini 4 Argon cost per million tokens?
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $15.00 per 1M output tokens; Google: Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 input and $10.00 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Google: Gemini 4 Argon?
Google: Gemini 4 Argon: 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Do Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Google: Gemini 4 Argon support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6: yes, Google: Gemini 4 Argon: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6: yes, Google: Gemini 4 Argon: yes.
Can Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Google: Gemini 4 Argon read images?
Yes, both accept image input.
Is Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Google: Gemini 4 Argon free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
What is the maximum output length of Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Google: Gemini 4 Argon?
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 can write up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response; Google: Gemini 4 Argon up to 66K (about 49,200 words).
When were Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Google: Gemini 4 Argon released?
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 was listed on 2026-02-17; Google: Gemini 4 Argon on 2026-10-13.
About the two models
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6
Sonnet 4.6 is Anthropic's most capable Sonnet-class model yet, with frontier performance across coding, agents, and professional work. It excels at iterative development, complex codebase navigation, end-to-end project management with...
Full Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6 specs →Google: Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 4 Argon is Google's flagship reasoning model, built for complex software engineering, deep mathematical and scientific problem solving, and autonomous multi-step agents. Google trained it to keep context across...
Full Google: Gemini 4 Argon specs →