# Gemini 3.1 Pro vs GPT-5.2 vs Claude Opus 4.6:  (February 2026)

## Overview

February 2026 marks the most competitive period in AI history, with three frontier models released within weeks of each other. This guide covers everything you need to know about **Google Gemini 3.1 Pro**, **OpenAI GPT-5.2**, and **Anthropic Claude Opus 4.6** — their capabilities, benchmarks, pricing, and ideal use cases.

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## 1\. Gemini 3.1 Pro (Google DeepMind)

### Release & Status

*   **Released:** February 19, 2026 (Preview)
    
*   **Developer:** Google DeepMind
    
*   **Model ID:** `gemini-3.1-pro-preview`
    
*   **Status:** Public Preview (GA timing TBD)
    
*   **Knowledge Cutoff:** January 2025
    

### Core Specifications

<table style="min-width: 50px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Spec</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Details</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Context Window</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>1,048,576 tokens (1M)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Max Output</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>65,536 tokens (64K)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Input Modalities</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Text, Image, Video, Audio, PDF</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Output Modalities</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Text</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Pricing (Input)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>~$2 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Pricing (Output)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>~$12 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

### Key Capabilities

*   **Abstract Reasoning Champion:** 77.1% on ARC-AGI-2 (verified) — more than double Gemini 3 Pro's 31.1%. This is the standout result, testing novel pattern recognition rather than memorized knowledge.
    
*   **Scientific Knowledge:** 94.3% on GPQA Diamond, demonstrating strong graduate-level science performance.
    
*   **Coding:** 80.6% on SWE-Bench Verified, near-tied with Opus 4.6 for real-world software engineering.
    
*   **Agentic Tasks:** 33.5% on APEX-Agents (vs 18.4% for Gemini 3 Pro), nearly doubling autonomous task completion.
    
*   **Native Multimodal:** True first-class support for video and audio inputs — processes up to ~8.4 hours of audio or 900 images per prompt.
    
*   **Token Efficiency:** More efficient thinking with fewer output tokens while delivering reliable results.
    

### New Features

*   **Thinking Level Control:** `thinking_level` parameter (lo, medium, high) replaces `thinking_budget` for controlling reasoning depth.
    
*   **Media Resolution Control:** `media_resolution` parameter for managing vision processing cost/quality tradeoffs.
    
*   **Animated SVG Generation:** Can generate website-ready, animated SVGs directly from text descriptions.
    
*   **Multimodal Function Responses:** Function responses can now include images and PDFs.
    
*   **Streaming Function Calling:** Stream partial function call arguments during tool use.
    

### Availability

*   Gemini App (Pro & Ultra plans)
    
*   Google AI Studio & Gemini API
    
*   Vertex AI & Gemini Enterprise
    
*   Gemini CLI, Google Antigravity, Android Studio
    
*   NotebookLM (Pro & Ultra users)
    

### Best For

*   Abstract reasoning and scientific analysis
    
*   Native multimodal processing (video, audio, images)
    
*   High-volume API workloads (cost-efficient)
    
*   Large-context document analysis
    
*   Agentic workflows and autonomous coding
    

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## 2\. GPT-5.2 (OpenAI)

### Release & Status

*   **Released:** December 11, 2025
    
*   **Developer:** OpenAI
    
*   **Three Variants:** GPT-5.2 Instant, GPT-5.2 Thinking, GPT-5.2 Pro
    
*   **Specialized Variant:** GPT-5.2-Codex (released January 14, 2026)
    
*   **Status:** Generally Available
    
*   **Knowledge Cutoff:** August 2025
    

### Core Specifications

<table style="min-width: 50px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Spec</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Details</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Context Window</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>400,000 tokens (400K)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Max Output</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>128,000 tokens (128K)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Input Modalities</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Text, Image, Code</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Output Modalities</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Text</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Pricing (Input)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$1.75 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Pricing (Output)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$14 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Cached Input</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$0.175 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

### Three Operating Modes

1.  **GPT-5.2 Instant** — Fast, efficient workhorse for everyday tasks. Improved info-seeking, how-tos, technical writing, and translation with a warm conversational tone.
    
2.  **GPT-5.2 Thinking** — Deeper reasoning for harder work tasks. Standard and Extended thinking levels. Excels at spreadsheets, financial modeling, and presentations.
    
3.  **GPT-5.2 Pro** — Maximum intelligence for difficult questions. Fewest major errors and strongest complex domain performance. Worth the wait for high-quality answers.
    

### Key Capabilities

*   **Mathematics:** 100% on AIME 2025, perfect score on competition-level math.
    
*   **Scientific Reasoning:** 93.2% on GPQA Diamond (Pro variant).
    
*   **Expert-Level Work:** Beats or ties human experts on 70.9% of GDPval tasks across 44 occupations.
    
*   **Coding:** 80% on SWE-Bench Verified, competitive across coding benchmarks.
    
*   **Reduced Errors:** 30% fewer response-level errors than GPT-5.1 Thinking.
    
*   **Tool Accuracy:** 98.7% accuracy on telecom tool-use tasks (Tau2-bench).
    
*   **Agentic Coding:** GPT-5.2-Codex optimized for long-horizon coding with context compaction and cybersecurity capabilities.
    

### New Features

*   **Reasoning Effort Control:** `reasoning_effort` parameter including `xhigh` for maximum reasoning.
    
*   **Context Compaction:** For sustained agentic coding sessions.
    
*   **GPT-5.2-Codex:** Specialized variant with strongest cybersecurity capabilities, Windows environment support, and large codebase handling.
    
*   **GUI Understanding:** 86.3% on ScreenSpot-Pro (up from 64.2% in GPT-5.1).
    

### Task Horizon

*   According to METR, GPT-5.2 (high) has a 50%-time horizon of 6 hours 34 minutes — the longest until Claude Opus 4.6 surpassed it on February 20, 2026.
    

### Availability

*   ChatGPT (all paid plans)
    
*   OpenAI API
    
*   Azure OpenAI Service
    
*   Codex CLI and IDE Extension
    

### Best For

*   Mathematical and abstract reasoning
    
*   Professional knowledge work (spreadsheets, presentations)
    
*   Agentic coding with Codex variant
    
*   Cost-effective cached-input workflows ($0.175/1M tokens)
    
*   Cybersecurity applications
    

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## 3\. Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic)

### Release & Status

*   **Released:** February 5, 2026
    
*   **Developer:** Anthropic
    
*   **Model ID:** `claude-opus-4-6`
    
*   **Status:** Generally Available
    
*   **Knowledge Cutoff:** End of May 2025
    

### Core Specifications

<table style="min-width: 50px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Spec</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Details</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Context Window</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>200K (1M in beta)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Max Output</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>128,000 tokens (128K)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Input Modalities</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Text, Image, PDF</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Output Modalities</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Text</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Pricing (Input)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$5 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Pricing (Output)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$25 / 1M tokens</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Prompt Caching</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Up to 90% savings</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Batch Processing</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>50% savings</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

### Key Capabilities

*   **Agentic Coding Leader:** 65.4% on Terminal-Bench 2.0 — highest score at launch. 80.8% on SWE-Bench Verified.
    
*   **Enterprise Knowledge Work:** 1,606 Elo on GDPval-AA — 144 points ahead of GPT-5.2 and 190 points ahead of Opus 4.5. Outperforms GPT-5.2 about 70% of the time on economically valuable tasks.
    
*   **Deep Search:** Best on BrowseComp for locating hard-to-find information online.
    
*   **Multidisciplinary Reasoning:** Leads on Humanity's Last Exam (with tools) at 53.1%.
    
*   **Computer Use:** 72.7% on OSWorld — best computer-using model.
    
*   **Legal Reasoning:** 90.2% on BigLaw Bench with 40% perfect scores.
    
*   **Cybersecurity:** Won 38 out of 40 blind-ranked cybersecurity investigations against Claude 4.5 models.
    
*   **Financial Analysis:** Top spot on Finance Agent benchmark.
    

### New Features

*   **Agent Teams:** Multiple agents work in parallel, each owning its piece and coordinating autonomously. Research preview in Claude Code.
    
*   **Adaptive Thinking:** `thinking: {type: "adaptive"}` — model dynamically decides when and how much to think. Recommended mode for Opus 4.6.
    
*   **Effort Control:** Four levels (low, medium, high, max) now GA without beta headers.
    
*   **Compaction API:** Server-side context summarization for infinite conversations and longer-running tasks.
    
*   **Fast Mode:** Beta feature for faster output token generation.
    
*   **128K Max Output:** Doubled from previous 64K limit.
    
*   **Data Residency:** `inference_geo` parameter for US-only inference.
    
*   **Claude in Excel:** Plans before acting, infers structure from unstructured data, multi-step transformations.
    
*   **Claude in PowerPoint:** Research preview — reads layouts, fonts, slide masters for on-brand deck generation.
    

### Availability

*   [claude.ai](http://claude.ai) (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise)
    
*   Claude API (Developer Platform)
    
*   Amazon Bedrock
    
*   Google Cloud Vertex AI
    
*   Microsoft Foundry (Azure)
    
*   Claude Code (CLI)
    

### Best For

*   Complex agentic coding and code review
    
*   Enterprise knowledge work (finance, legal, consulting)
    
*   Long-running autonomous tasks
    
*   Deep research and information retrieval
    
*   Multi-agent coordination workflows
    
*   Computer use and GUI automation
    

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## Head-to-Head Benchmark Comparison

<table style="min-width: 125px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Benchmark</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Gemini 3.1 Pro</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>GPT-5.2</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Claude Opus 4.6</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>What It Tests</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>ARC-AGI-2</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>77.1%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>52.9%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>68.8%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Novel pattern reasoning</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>GPQA Diamond</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>94.3%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>93.2% (Pro)</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>~92%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Graduate-level science</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>SWE-Bench Verified</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>80.6%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>80.0%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>80.8%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Real-world software engineering</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Terminal-Bench 2.0</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>68.5%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>64.7%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>65.4%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Agentic coding (CLI)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Humanity's Last Exam (w/ tools)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>51.4%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>53.1%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Complex multidisciplinary reasoning</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>GDPval-AA Elo</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>1,317</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>1,462</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>1,606</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Professional knowledge work</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>APEX-Agents</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>33.5%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>23.0%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>29.8%</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Autonomous multi-step tasks</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>AIME 2025</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>100%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Competition-level mathematics</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>BrowseComp</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>#1</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Agentic search / info retrieval</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>OSWorld</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>72.7%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Computer use</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>BigLaw Bench</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>—</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>90.2%</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Legal reasoning</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

> **Note:** Benchmarks are reported by each company and may use different configurations. Independent verification is ongoing for preview models.

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## Pricing Comparison

<table style="min-width: 100px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Model</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Input (per 1M tokens)</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Output (per 1M tokens)</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Context Window</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Gemini 3.1 Pro</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$2</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$12</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>1M</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>GPT-5.2</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$1.75</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$14</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>400K</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>GPT-5.2 (cached)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$0.175</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$14</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>400K</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Claude Opus 4.6</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$5 ($15 w/ caching)</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$25 ($75 w/ caching)</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>200K (1M beta)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p><strong>Claude Opus 4.6 (batch)</strong></p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$2.50</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>$12.50</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>200K</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

> Gemini 3.1 Pro is **7.5x cheaper** than Claude Opus 4.6 on standard input pricing. GPT-5.2's cached input pricing ($0.175) is extremely cost-effective for repeated-context agent loops.

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## Decision Guide: Which Model to Choose

### Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro when:

*   Abstract reasoning and scientific analysis are your priority
    
*   You need native multimodal support (video, audio, images)
    
*   Cost efficiency matters — best price-to-performance ratio
    
*   You want the full 1M context window in stable form
    
*   You're building within the Google ecosystem
    

### Choose GPT-5.2 when:

*   Mathematical reasoning is critical (perfect AIME score)
    
*   You need specialized agentic coding (Codex variant)
    
*   Cached input pricing fits your workflow ($0.175/1M)
    
*   You want the most mature API ecosystem
    
*   Cybersecurity applications are a priority
    

### Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when:

*   Output quality matters most (leads human evaluator preferences)
    
*   Enterprise knowledge work in finance, legal, or consulting
    
*   Complex multi-agent coordination is needed
    
*   Computer use and GUI automation are required
    
*   Long-running autonomous tasks with sustained quality
    
*   Safety and alignment are critical considerations
    

### The Smart Approach: Model Routing

The emerging best practice in 2026 is using model routing — selecting the optimal model per task. This blended approach can reduce costs by 70-80% while maintaining quality:

*   **Claude** for coding-critical and expert enterprise tasks
    
*   **GPT-5.2** for mathematical reasoning and cached-context workflows
    
*   **Gemini** for multimodal processing and high-volume queries
    

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## Timeline Summary

<table style="min-width: 50px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Date</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Event</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Dec 11, 2025</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>GPT-5.2 released (Instant, Thinking, Pro)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Jan 14, 2026</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>GPT-5.2-Codex released</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Feb 5, 2026</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Claude Opus 4.6 released</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Feb 13, 2026</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Six older OpenAI models retired from ChatGPT</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Feb 19, 2026</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Gemini 3.1 Pro released (Preview)</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Feb 20, 2026</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p>Claude Opus 4.6 overtakes GPT-5.2 on METR time horizon</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

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*Last updated: February 26, 2026* *Sources: Official announcements from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic; independent analyses from Artificial Analysis, DataCamp, TechCrunch, CNBC, and others.*