Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Gemma 4 31B IT
Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2025) and Gemma 4 31B IT (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and Google DeepMind. Claude Sonnet 4.5 ships a 200K-token context window, while Gemma 4 31B IT ships a 256k-token context window. On pricing, Gemma 4 31B IT costs $0.13/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Gemma 4 31B IT is ~2208% cheaper at $0.13/1M; pay for Claude Sonnet 4.5 only for reasoning depth.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-09-29 | 2026-03-31 |
| Context window | 200K | 256k |
| Parameters | — | 31B |
| Architecture | decoder only | - |
| License | Proprietary | Open Source |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Gemma 4 31B IT |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.13/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.38/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Gemma 4 31B IT |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Function calling | Yes | Yes |
| Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on vision: Claude Sonnet 4.5, reasoning mode: Claude Sonnet 4.5, and tool use: Claude Sonnet 4.5. Both models share multimodal input, function calling, and structured outputs, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude Sonnet 4.5 lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while Gemma 4 31B IT lists $0.13/1M input and $0.38/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Gemma 4 31B IT lower by about $6.39 per million blended tokens. Availability is 7 providers versus 4, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 when reasoning depth and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Gemma 4 31B IT when long-context analysis, larger context windows, and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemma 4 31B IT?
Gemma 4 31B IT supports 256k tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemma 4 31B IT?
Gemma 4 31B IT is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Gemma 4 31B IT costs $0.13/1M input and $0.38/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemma 4 31B IT open source?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is listed under Proprietary. Gemma 4 31B IT is listed under Open Source. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemma 4 31B IT?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Gemma 4 31B IT?
Both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Gemma 4 31B IT expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Where can I run Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Gemma 4 31B IT?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is available on Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic, Snowflake Cortex, GCP Vertex AI, and AWS Bedrock. Gemma 4 31B IT is available on Google AI Studio, GCP Vertex AI, OpenRouter, and Together AI. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.