Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemma 4 26B A4B
At a Glance
| Compare | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic |  Gemma 4 26B A4BGoogle DeepMind |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5 | #26 of 4660.1 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 40.0–73.4 | UnrankedNot in the 46-model eligible cohort |
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | #29 of 44$0.194 per LiveBench case | UnrankedNot in the 44-model eligible cohort |
| EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5 | #30 of 3847.4 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 37.4–54.0 | UnrankedNot in the 38-model eligible cohort |
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $2.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $0.070Deepinfra ↗ · Sep 21, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $10.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $0.30Openrouter ↗ · Sep 22, 2026 |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 1,000K | 262K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → | Sep 3, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,442.15100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1437.57467941, 1446.71829948]; votes 35301; rank 62 | 1,434.4799% of row best · rating · gemma-4-26b-a4b; 95% CI [1426.87673667, 1442.06986887]; votes 5804; rank 80 |
| LMArena Vision Arenavision-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,277.16100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1269.57643110, 1284.74576666]; votes 10289; rank 32 | 1,258.9099% of row best · rating · gemma-4-26b-a4b; 95% CI [1252.23205561, 1265.56747875]; votes 22658; rank 47 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above · 1 tie | 1 benchmark winNo overall winner | 0 benchmark winsNo overall winner |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Google DeepMind |
| Family | Claude 5 | Gemma 4 |
| Model | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
| Version | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemma 4 26B-A4B |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-06-30 | 2026-03-11 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000K | 262K |
| Total parameters | Unknown | 26B |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 4B |
| License | Unknown | apache-2.0 |
| Open weights | No | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | Yes |
| Provider access | Anthropic (Standard), Deepinfra (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) | Deepinfra (Standard), Google Gemini (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools |
Claude Sonnet 5 Capabilities
Gemma 4 26B A4B Capabilities
Related Comparisons
All image comparisons →| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemma 4 26B A4B FAQs
Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemma 4 26B A4B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.00 and Gemma 4 26B A4B is $0.070 per million tokens, so Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper on this metric. Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.00 and Gemma 4 26B A4B is $0.30 per million tokens, so Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?+
Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Sonnet 5 supports 1,000K and Gemma 4 26B A4B supports 262K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: An overall winner requires at least two decisive benchmarks from at least two original publishers.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B be self-hosted?+
Gemma 4 26B A4B is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. Claude Sonnet 5 is not marked open weight; Gemma 4 26B A4B is open weight.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemma 4 26B A4B understand images?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is documented with image input; Gemma 4 26B A4B is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Sonnet 5 is 128K and Gemma 4 26B A4B is —.
Do Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemma 4 26B A4B support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Sonnet 5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Gemma 4 26B A4B: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?+
Claude Sonnet 5 has 3 sourced provider routes; Gemma 4 26B A4B has 4, so Gemma 4 26B A4B has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemma 4 26B A4B?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.