After conducting extensive head-to-head testing between Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview using identical coding challenges, I've uncovered significant performance disparities that every developer should understand. My findings reveal critical differences in execution speed, cost efficiency, and most importantly, the ability to follow instructions precisely. I designed my comparison around real-world coding scenarios that test both models' capabilities in practical development contexts. The evaluation focused on a complex Rust project refactor task requiring understanding of existing code architecture, implementing changes across multiple files, and maintaining backward compatibility. Hardware Configuration: MacBook Pro M2 Max, 16GB RAM Network: 1Gbps fiber connection Development Environment: VS Code with Rust Analyzer API Configuration: Claude Sonnet 4: OpenRouter Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview: OpenRouter Request timeout: 60 seconds Max retries: 3 with exponential backoff Project Specifications: Rust 1.75.0 stable toolchain 135000+ lines of code across 15+ modules Complex async/await patterns with tokio runtime Claude Sonnet 4 Context Window: 200,000 tokens Input Cost: $3/1M tokens Output Cost: $15/1M tokens Response Formatting: Structured JSON with tool calls Function calling: Native support with schema validation Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview Context Window: 2,000,000 tokens Input Cost: $1.25/1M tokens Output Cost: $10/1M tokens Response Formatting: Native function calling Figure 1: Execution time and cost comparison between Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview MetricClaude Sonnet 4Gemini 2.5 Pro PreviewPerformance RatioExecution Time6m 5s17m 1s2.8x fasterTotal Cost$5.849$2.2992.5x more expensiveTask Completion100%65%1.54x completion rateUser Interventions13+63% fewer interventionsFiles Modified2 (as requested)4 (scope creep)50% better scope adherence Test Sample: 15 identical refactor tasks across different Rust codebases Confidence Level: 95% for all timing an...
First seen: 2025-05-31 11:27
Last seen: 2025-05-31 11:27