Claude Haiku 5.5 Max vs Gemini 4 Carbon High compared

Gemini 4 Carbon High leads the intelligence index 60.0 to 36.5. Benchmarks, sample bills, speed and a verdict.

Metric	Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)	Gemini 4 Carbon (High)
Intelligence Index	36.5	60.0
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.10	$4.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$0.50	$20.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	233	91
Time to first token	4.6 min	2.0 min
Release date	2026-10-07	2026-10-28

Metric

Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)

Gemini 4 Carbon (High)

Intelligence Index

36.5

60.0

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.10

$4.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$0.50

$20.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

233

Time to first token

4.6 min

2.0 min

Release date

2026-10-07

2026-10-28

Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) (Anthropic) and Gemini 4 Carbon (High) (Google) are not peers on the headline index, which makes the trade-offs the interesting part. The sharpest difference is price: Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs $0.50 per million output tokens, against $20.00 for Gemini 4 Carbon High. Everything below is read from the benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's catalogue; nothing here comes from a hands-on test.

Running costs

Per million tokens, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max charges $0.10 for input and $0.50 for output, while Gemini 4 Carbon High charges $4.00 and $20.00. That makes Claude Haiku 5.5 Max's output 98% cheaper.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $0.20 on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $8.00 on Gemini 4 Carbon High. For a month of coding-assistant traffic at 30 million input and 3 million output tokens, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max would come in 98% lower: $4.50 for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max against $180 for Gemini 4 Carbon High.

Generation gap

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max came first, on October 7, 2026; Gemini 4 Carbon High followed on October 28, 2026. That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

How the intelligence index compares

On the intelligence index, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max scores 36.5 against 60.0 for Gemini 4 Carbon High. These scores put the two models in different leagues on overall capability.

For context, that places Claude Haiku 5.5 Max 37th and Gemini 4 Carbon High 1st out of 109 scored models still on offer.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is the faster writer

Once a response is under way, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max produces roughly 233 tokens per second against 91 tokens per second for Gemini 4 Carbon High. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is ahead by 156% on throughput. Before any text appears, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max takes 4.6 minutes and Gemini 4 Carbon High 2.0 minutes. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max writes faster once it starts, but Gemini 4 Carbon High's head start is large enough that Gemini 4 Carbon High still finishes first at any typical reply length; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max only catches up beyond about 23,000 tokens. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

For an 800-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 4.7 minutes on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and 2.2 minutes on Gemini 4 Carbon High.

Cost per point of intelligence

Per point of intelligence index, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs $0.0055 of blended price per million tokens and Gemini 4 Carbon High $0.13. Gemini 4 Carbon High costs 24 times as much per point, which is the price of its lead.

Common questions about Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and Gemini 4 Carbon High

Is Claude Haiku 5.5 Max better than Gemini 4 Carbon High?

Not across the board: Gemini 4 Carbon High scores higher on the intelligence index, 60.0 to 36.5; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is 98% cheaper on blended price; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max streams output 2.6 times as fast; and Gemini 4 Carbon High reaches its first token sooner.

Does Claude Haiku 5.5 Max respond faster than Gemini 4 Carbon High?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates output faster, at 233 tokens per second against 91 tokens per second. Gemini 4 Carbon High reaches its first token sooner (2.0 minutes against 4.6 minutes). Counting the first-token wait, Gemini 4 Carbon High finishes first for any reply shorter than about 23,000 tokens.

Where do these numbers come from?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Gemini 4 Carbon High?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max lists $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 4 Carbon High lists $4.00 and $20.00. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $0.20 against $8.00.

Which is newer, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Gemini 4 Carbon High?

Gemini 4 Carbon High is newer. It was released on October 28, 2026, 21 days after Claude Haiku 5.5 Max (October 7, 2026).

Final whistle

In one line: Gemini 4 Carbon High has more going for it here, but Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is not without an argument. Pick Claude Haiku 5.5 Max if cost matters ($0.50 against $20.00 per million output tokens) and you generate very long outputs, beyond about 23,000 tokens. Pick Gemini 4 Carbon High if you need the higher overall score (60.0 against 36.5) and replies need to finish sooner at typical lengths.

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) and Gemini 4 Carbon (High) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.