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Gemini 4 Argon vs Claude: Top 10 AI Models, October 2026

Gemini 4 Argon wins 12 of Google's own 18 tests and leads the Arena vote, yet it trails Claude Opus 5.5 on the independent index (53 vs 58), and its $1.99 task cost roughly doubles after November 30.

  • No. 1: Claude Opus 5.5
  • 10 places

01Final list

The leading AIs each built their own list of ten independently. Here is one result that is easy to check: every place has a reason, a source, and the list of AIs that included it.

Order: from most to least AI agreement.

A bright badge means this AI put the entry on its list. A dim badge means it did not.

  1. 1

    Claude Opus 5.5

    Highest independent index, 58 at max effort, and no launch-price cliff at $4/$20. At high effort it still scores 54 for $1.82 a task.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 1 · ChatGPT: 1

    What each AI noted 2
    • Claudeplace 1

      The only model to lead the independent index (58) while its launch price equals its standard price ($4/$20), so there is no price cliff. At high effort it scores 54 for $1.82 a task.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 1

      Artificial Analysis named it the Intelligence Index leader; that does not settle the human-preference or value-for-money contest.

      Source ↗
    2 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  2. 2

    Gemini 4 Argon

    First in the Arena vote (about 1524, preliminary) and wins 12 of Google's 18 tests, but scores 53 independently. Its $1.99 task cost becomes an estimated $3.98 after November 30.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 4 · ChatGPT: 2

    What each AI noted 2
    • Claudeplace 4

      First in the Arena vote (about 1524) but 5 index points behind Opus 5.5, and its $1.99 task cost roughly doubles to about $3.98 when introductory pricing ends.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 2

      Artificial Analysis reports 53 on its Intelligence Index and $1.99 to run that index; Google’s API launch price was half its stated standard price.

      Source ↗
    2 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  3. 3

    GPT-6 Astra

    Ties Argon on the index at 53 but costs $3.26 a task, and at $10/$50 it is the priciest per token. It wins 3 rows of Google's own table.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 5 · ChatGPT: 3

    What each AI noted 2
    • Claudeplace 5

      Ties Argon on the index at 53 but costs $3.26 a task at max effort against Argon's $1.99. At $10/$50 it is the priciest model per token among the leaders.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 3

      Its Artificial Analysis page gives a 53, tied with Argon in the result retrieved, while the reported output speed is 57 tokens per second.

      Source ↗
    2 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  4. More about the top three ↓
  5. 4

    Claude Fable 5.1

    Index 53, level with Argon and Astra, but $7.63 a task at $10/$50 makes it the costliest way to get that score. It tops Humanity's Last Exam at 59.1%.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 7 · ChatGPT: 4

    What each AI noted 2
    • Claudeplace 7

      Index 53 at $7.63 a task and $10/$50 per million tokens. It tops the Humanity's Last Exam table (59.1%) but costs more than any rival for the same index points.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 4

      One October roundup places it among the leaders on Artificial Analysis and WebDev Arena, but the retrieved sources do not establish a single cross-board winner.

      Source ↗
    2 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  6. 5

    Gemini 3.8 Flash

    The cheap, fast tier: index 41 at 147 tokens a second (High) and 40 for $0.93 a task (Medium), yet 95.3% on GPQA Diamond.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: see list · ChatGPT: 7

    What each AI noted 2
    • Claude

      Named differently in its own list: open the full list.

      see list
    • ChatGPTplace 7

      Its reported index score is 40; the lower-cost figure shown by Artificial Analysis is $0.93 per index task.

      Source ↗
    2 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  7. 6

    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Index 56, two points behind Opus 5.5, at half the price ($2/$10). At 134 tokens a second it is the fastest of the top tier.

    Included it: Claude. Did not include: ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 2

    What each AI noted 1
    • Claudeplace 2

      Within 2 index points of Opus 5.5 at half the list price ($2/$10), and the fastest top-tier model on the AA table (134 tokens per second).

      Source ↗
    1 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  8. 7

    GPT-6.1 Sol

    Most capability per dollar: index 52 for $0.72 a task, about a third of Argon's launch-price cost. The catch is speed: 55 tokens a second (modelgrep says 75).

    Included it: Claude. Did not include: ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 3

    What each AI noted 1
    • Claudeplace 3

      Index 52 for $0.72 a task, the lowest cost among the top-15 AA entries, which makes it the capability-per-dollar leader. The price is its slowness: 55 tokens per second.

      Source ↗
    1 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  9. 8

    Grok 4.7

    Index 46 at $1.25–$3.74 a task depending on variant. No Arena rating or maker-claim comparison was verified for a matching variant.

    Included it: ChatGPT. Did not include: Claude.

    In their lists: ChatGPT: 5

    What each AI noted 1
    • ChatGPTplace 5

      Artificial Analysis’s release page reports an index score of 46 and an index-task cost range of $1.25–$3.74 across variants.

      Source ↗
    1 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  10. 9

    Muse Wonder Full (Meta)

    Third-highest index at 56, but it has no per-token price or cost per task. It is sold only in $50 and $200 a month Muse Code plans.

    Included it: Claude. Did not include: ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 8

    What each AI noted 1
    • Claudeplace 8

      Scores 56, third on the index, yet it can't be bought per token. It is sold only through $50 and $200 a month Muse Code plans.

      Source ↗
    1 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  11. 10

    Muse Wonder (Meta)

    Index 52 and the fastest on the AA table at 161 tokens a second (modelgrep says 65), but it is still a preview and costs $4.52 a task.

    Included it: Claude. Did not include: ChatGPT.

    In their lists: Claude: 6

    What each AI noted 1
    • Claudeplace 6

      Meta's first frontier-class model scores 52 and is the fastest API model on the AA table at 161 tokens per second, but it is still a preview and it costs $4.52 a task.

      Source ↗
    1 AIs put it here
    Source ↗

02More about the top three

The ranking is above. Here is more about the three places at the top: what they are, why they are here, and what is worth knowing.

The scores come from one index, but the costs differ: Opus's 58 is at max effort, Astra's $3.26 is at max effort, and Argon's $1.99 is a launch price that roughly doubles after November 30.

1Claude Opus 5.5

No. 1 — Claude Opus 5.5. On the lists of 2 of 2 AIs; median place there: 1. It has the highest independent index score, 58, and its launch price equals its standard price, so there is no price jump coming.

Did you know

  • Claude Opus 5.5 costs less than the model before it: $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output, down from $5 and $25 on Opus 5. Cache reads fell 60%, the biggest drop in the release.

    Source ↗
What it is
Anthropic's top model, priced at $4/$20 per million tokens.
Its edge
Highest independent index score (58), with no price cliff.
Who it suits
Suits people who want the best independent score; max effort can use far more tokens.
  • Independent index score58 on the index
Why it is here

  • Artificial Analysis ranked Opus 5.5 first among 211 models, with 58 points—5 ahead of GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1 at 53. — (voice only)

    Source ↗

  • At medium effort, Opus 5.5 scored 51 for $1.34 per task, matching Opus 5 at maximum effort, which cost $5.86 per task. — (voice only)

    Source ↗
Did you know

  • In one Terraform test, Opus 5.5 gave valid output on every attempt. Fable 5.1 sometimes refused and returned zero output tokens. The default effort level also dropped to medium, which can matter for hard reasoning jobs.

    Source ↗
History

  • In 2026, Opus 5.5 marked Anthropic’s first release after it called for “pacing the frontier.” The company said the model would launch with safeguards for biology and cybersecurity work. — (voice only)

    Source ↗
Keep in mind

  • Max effort is the setting that scored 58, and the article says experienced users find it overthinks. Redditors reported Max using 4x, 5.5x and 6x the tokens of the default setting, so it costs more than the headline score suggests.

    Source ↗

  • Some users doubt the praise will last. One Reddit user wrote: "Queue the whining in two weeks about the model being nerfed." Another said it made questionable architecture choices in a same-task test against Fable 5.1.

    Source ↗
Where to go further

  • Open Anthropic's launch page for Claude Opus 5.5 and read how it compares with Claude Fable 5.1 on everyday work. Then try the model on a long coding or writing task you already know well.

    Source ↗
Compare the top three ↓

2Gemini 4 Argon

No. 2 — Gemini 4 Argon. On the lists of 2 of 2 AIs; median place there: 3. It leads the Arena vote and wins most of Google's own tests, but scores 5 points lower than Opus on the independent index.

Did you know

  • Google said it no longer plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro. Argon came instead, after months of delays. Pichai had originally said the 3.5 Pro would come out in June.

    Source ↗
What it is
Google's newest top model, replacing the planned Gemini 3.5 Pro.
Its edge
Cheapest task cost of the three ($1.99) and first in the Arena vote.
Who it suits
Suits budget-minded coders who use it before November 30; later the price doubles.
  • Independent index score53 on the index
Why it is here

  • Artificial Analysis gave Gemini 4 Argon 53 points, putting it level with GPT-6 Astra and 5 behind Opus 5.5’s 58. — (voice only)

    Source ↗

  • Google says Argon reached 77.9% on DeepSWE v1.1, a benchmark for long software-engineering tasks, and set a new state of the art there. — (voice only)

    Source ↗
Keep in mind

  • Verdicts split. Vals AI ranks Argon first on professional work, but Artificial Analysis puts it eighth of 216 models, with a score of 53. On coding, Google's own comparison shows Argon at 57.4% against Opus 5.5's 66.4%.

    Source ↗

  • The cheap launch price is temporary. The page says the introductory API price lasts only through November 30, and on December 1 input and output rates double. Individual users also need an AI Ultra subscription for Google's Antigravity coding tool.

    Source ↗
Where to go further

  • Read Google's Gemini 4 Argon launch post and look at the coding examples first, such as the Chrome refactoring work. Then check the pricing section, since the introductory price ends on November 30.

    Source ↗
Compare the top three ↓

3GPT-6 Astra

No. 3 — GPT-6 Astra. On the lists of 2 of 2 AIs; median place there: 4. It ties Argon at 53 but costs more per task and per token, and it wins only a few rows of Google's table.

Did you know

  • GPT-6 Astra is OpenAI's first launch with critical cybersecurity capability. It first went to customers in the Daybreak program. OpenAI said it was trained on more than 100,000 GPUs at its Stargate site in Texas.

    Source ↗
What it is
OpenAI's newest top model, priced at $10/$50 per million tokens.
Its edge
Its computer-use result (72.6%) beats the other OpenAI and Claude models OpenAI compared.
Who it suits
Suits computer-use and security work where cost matters less; poor fit for tight budgets.
  • Independent index score53 on the index

Wikipedia · Wikidata

Why it is here

  • OpenAI reports Astra scored 72.6% on OSWorld 2.0, ahead of GPT-5.6 Sol at 65.7% and Claude Opus 5 at 70.2%. — (voice only)

    Source ↗

  • OpenAI lists Astra at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens for standard API use. — (voice only)

    Source ↗
History

  • In 2026, a Hugging Face incident shaped Astra’s safety testing: OpenAI said it built a new test to check whether the model would exceed its intended scope on difficult or impossible tasks. — (voice only)

    Source ↗
Keep in mind

  • Astra's list price is double GPT-5.6 Sol's on input and output. Requests over 272K input tokens are billed at higher rates for the whole request, and fast mode doubles the rates again.

    Source ↗

  • Rollout is staged, starting with trusted organizations, and the free tier is not included. Audio and video are unsupported. The article notes OpenAI's benchmark gains are vendor claims that have not been independently verified.

    Source ↗
Where to go further

  • Open OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra page and read the computer use and coding sections first. Then open the safety overview page linked from it to see how OpenAI describes its cybersecurity limits.

    Source ↗
Compare the top three ↓

The top three side by side

Claude Opus 5.5Gemini 4 ArgonGPT-6 Astra
In the AIs' lists2 / 22 / 22 / 2
Independent index score58 on the index53 on the index53 on the index
Put first byClaude, ChatGPT——

Places with the same number of AIs are ordered by their average place in the AIs' own lists.

More ratings

03Worth knowing

What the AIs noticed while building the list.

Argon's price cliff is what drops it below Sol and the Claude models. At the $4/$20 standard price its $1.99 task becomes about $3.98 (an estimate), because it uses about 62,000 output tokens a task against Astra's 27,000.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.
Source ↗

The human vote and the independent index disagree. Argon is first in Arena text at about 1524, yet 5 points behind Opus 5.5 on Artificial Analysis. Arena leaders also differ by board and snapshot.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.
Source ↗

Reasoning effort moves cost more than model choice does. Opus 5.5 ranges from 51 at $1.34 a task to 58 at $5.98, so medium-effort Opus costs less per task than Argon's high-effort run.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude. Did not include: ChatGPT.
Source ↗

Google's table shows some of its own losses (Terminal-bench 4.0, FrontierSWE v2), but the harness and the choice of tests are still Google's. Outlets even count it differently: 12 of 18 vs 13 of 19.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT.
Source ↗

Output-speed figures conflict between aggregators: Opus 5.5 is 95 tokens a second on AA and 213 on modelgrep, and Argon is 84 vs 58. Benchmarks also use high effort, while Pro and Ultra subscribers default to medium.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude. Did not include: ChatGPT.
Source ↗

04Questions people ask

gemini 4 argon vs claude opus 5.5

Opus 5.5 leads the Artificial Analysis index, 58 to Argon's 53, while Argon leads the preliminary Arena text vote at about 1524 to Claude's 1501–1505. On Google's own table Argon wins DeepSWE (77.9% vs 74.2%) and loses Terminal-bench 4.0 (57.4% vs 66.4%).

Source ↗
gemini 4 argon vs claude

Argon is cheaper per token at launch ($2/$10 vs Opus 5.5's $4/$20), but its $1.99 task cost becomes about $3.98 once the price doubles. Claude models score higher on Artificial Analysis.

Source ↗
gemini 4 argon vs claude 5.5

Artificial Analysis gives Opus 5.5 58, Sonnet 5.5 56 and Argon 53. Sonnet 5.5 costs $2/$10, the same as Argon's launch price, and its price does not double.

Source ↗
claude 4 vs gemini 2.5 pro

Those are older generations, and no October 2026 independent data covers them. The current frontier is Claude Opus 5.5 (58) and Gemini 4 Argon (53) on the Artificial Analysis index.

Source ↗

05How we counted

In plain words, no formulas.

1The question

Top 10 Frontier AI Models: Maker's Claims vs Independent Scores vs Real Cost per Task

2Why this topic

The reader sees the maker's own claims, independent task scores, crowd preference and the real bill per task together, which no single leaderboard shows.

3Where it applies

Global frontier AI language models available in October 2026

4What we looked at

  • Independent capability: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and Arena blind-vote rating, read side by side
  • Gap between each maker's own benchmark claims and the independent scores
  • Cost per completed task, at the launch price and at the standard price, plus measured output speed
  • Tie-break: how many of the maker's own launch-table benchmarks the model wins
  • Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (with cost per task and speed) — Independent index averaging 10 task evaluations, weighted toward agentic work. The same table lists cost per task in USD and med
  • Arena (LMArena) text leaderboard — Elo-style rating from anonymous head-to-head human votes. It measures preference, not accuracy. Argon's rating is preliminary, and results vary by board and snapshot
  • Google DeepMind launch blog and benchmark table — Benchmark scores Google reported itself, some of them on private evals, beside rival numbers taken from other sources. Also gives the $2/$10 launch pr
  • Google's launch table as reported by VentureBeat — Google's table puts Argon beside GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 and counts the rows each model leads (the tie-break).

5Who ranked

The leading AIs, each building its own list of ten independently and naming a source for every place: Claude, ChatGPT.

6How the places were set

The same entry written differently by different AIs was counted as one. The more AIs put an entry on their list, and the higher they put it, the higher its place. "AI agreement" shows how many of the AIs had it on their own list. Sources are only those the AIs found themselves; nothing was added by hand.

06Each AI's own list

🇺🇸 Claude10 places · 4 notes

The same question, answered by Claude alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5

    The only model to lead the independent index (58) while its launch price equals its standard price ($4/$20), so there is no price cliff. At high effort it scores 54 for $1.82 a task.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Within 2 index points of Opus 5.5 at half the list price ($2/$10), and the fastest top-tier model on the AA table (134 tokens per second).

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    GPT-6.1 Sol

    Index 52 for $0.72 a task, the lowest cost among the top-15 AA entries, which makes it the capability-per-dollar leader. The price is its slowness: 55 tokens per second.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Gemini 4 Argon (Google, 2026)

    First in the Arena vote (about 1524) but 5 index points behind Opus 5.5, and its $1.99 task cost roughly doubles to about $3.98 when introductory pricing ends.

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI)

    Ties Argon on the index at 53 but costs $3.26 a task at max effort against Argon's $1.99. At $10/$50 it is the priciest model per token among the leaders.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Muse Wonder (Meta, 2026)

    Meta's first frontier-class model scores 52 and is the fastest API model on the AA table at 161 tokens per second, but it is still a preview and it costs $4.52 a task.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Claude Fable 5.1

    Index 53 at $7.63 a task and $10/$50 per million tokens. It tops the Humanity's Last Exam table (59.1%) but costs more than any rival for the same index points.

    Source ↗
  8. 8
    Muse Wonder Full (Meta)

    Scores 56, third on the index, yet it can't be bought per token. It is sold only through $50 and $200 a month Muse Code plans.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Claude Opus 5

    The model Opus 5.5 replaced: 6.8 index points lower on modelgrep's table and $1 more per million input tokens ($5/$25).

    Source ↗
  10. 10
    Muse Spark 1.3 (Meta)

    The cheapest frontier-tier entry on the table ($1.25 per million input tokens), at an index of 48.1.

    Source ↗

What Claude noticed

Argon's price cliff is the main reason I rank it below Sol and the Claude models. Its $1.99 task cost is about $3.98 at the standard $4/$20 price, which is about 120% of Astra's cost. Argon uses about 62,000 output tokens per task against Astra's 27,000.

Source ↗

The independent index and the human vote disagree. Argon is first in the Arena text vote at about 1524, with Claude models about 20 points behind, but it is 5 points behind Opus 5.5 on the Artificial Analysis index.

Source ↗

Reasoning effort changes cost more than model choice does. Opus 5.5 ranges from 51 at $1.34 a task to 58 at $5.98. A medium-effort Opus 5.5 costs less per task than Argon's high-effort run.

Source ↗

Google's table includes its own losses (Terminal-bench 4.0, FrontierSWE v2, PostTrainBench). One outlet called that an unusual approach for vendor reporting, but the harness and benchmark choice are still Google's.

Source ↗
🇺🇸 ChatGPT10 places · 4 notes

The same question, answered by ChatGPT alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5

    Artificial Analysis named it the Intelligence Index leader; that does not settle the human-preference or value-for-money contest.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    Gemini 4 Argon

    Artificial Analysis reports 53 on its Intelligence Index and $1.99 to run that index; Google’s API launch price was half its stated standard price.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    GPT-6 Astra

    Its Artificial Analysis page gives a 53, tied with Argon in the result retrieved, while the reported output speed is 57 tokens per second.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Claude Fable 5.1

    One October roundup places it among the leaders on Artificial Analysis and WebDev Arena, but the retrieved sources do not establish a single cross-board winner.

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    Grok 4.7

    Artificial Analysis’s release page reports an index score of 46 and an index-task cost range of $1.25–$3.74 across variants.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)

    Artificial Analysis lists it at 41, while Google’s older model family is no longer the headline frontier release.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)

    Its reported index score is 40; the lower-cost figure shown by Artificial Analysis is $0.93 per index task.

    Source ↗
  8. 8
    Gemini 3.8 Flash (Low)

    The retrieved Artificial Analysis creator page reports 33, a substantial drop from the High variant’s 41.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview

    Artificial Analysis lists 30; its creator page reports 139 tokens per second, but that speed alone does not make it a top capability pick.

    Source ↗
  10. 10
    Other October 2026 frontier models

    A defensible tenth place cannot be assigned from the verified score and price evidence retrieved; the live release list is the starting point for a reproducible shortlist.

    Source ↗

What ChatGPT noticed

Argon’s Artificial Analysis score of 53 is strong, but the same index-task cost is $1.99; a score alone does not show the cheapest completed task.

Source ↗

Google’s Argon API launch pricing was $2/$10 per million input/output tokens, with $4/$20 stated as standard pricing after November 30, 2026.

Source ↗

Arena measures human preference, and October reporting describes different leaders for text, WebDev and other boards—there is no one Arena result that answers every use case.

Source ↗

Google’s launch table is a maker-reported benchmark set; comparing it with an independent index requires matching task, settings and model variant.

Source ↗