Key Takeaways
Claude Opus 4.6 wins:
- Higher intelligence benchmark
- Better at coding
Claude Sonnet 4 wins:
- Cheaper input tokens
- Cheaper output tokens
- Faster response time
- Better at math
- Has reasoning mode
- Supports tool calls
Price Advantage
Claude Sonnet 4
Benchmark Advantage
Claude Opus 4.6
Context Window
Claude Sonnet 4
Speed
Claude Sonnet 4
Pricing Comparison
Price Comparison
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input (per 1M tokens) | $5.00 | $3.00 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
| Output (per 1M tokens) | $25.00 | $15.00 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
| Cache Read (per 1M) | $500000.00 | $300000.00 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
| Cache Write (per 1M) | $6250000.00 | $3750000.00 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
Using a 3:1 input/output ratio, Claude Sonnet 4 is 40% cheaper overall.
Claude Opus 4.6 Providers
Amazon Bedrock $5.00 (Cheapest)
Google $5.00 (Cheapest)
Anthropic $5.00 (Cheapest)
Claude Sonnet 4 Providers
Amazon Bedrock $3.00 (Cheapest)
Google $3.00 (Cheapest)
Anthropic $3.00 (Cheapest)
Benchmark Comparison
8
Benchmarks Compared
3
Claude Opus 4.6 Wins
0
Claude Sonnet 4 Wins
Benchmark Scores
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Overall intelligence score | 46.4 | 33.0 | |
Coding Index Code generation & understanding | 47.6 | 30.6 | |
Math Index Mathematical reasoning | - | 38.0 | - |
MMLU Pro Academic knowledge | - | 83.7 | - |
GPQA Graduate-level science | 84.0 | 68.3 | |
LiveCodeBench Competitive programming | - | 44.9 | - |
Aider Real-world code editing | - | 61.3 | - |
AIME Competition math | - | 40.7 | - |
Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms in coding benchmarks.
Cost vs Quality
X-axis:
Y-axis:
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Other models
Context & Performance
Context Window
Claude Opus 4.6
1,000,000
tokens
Max output: 128,000 tokens
Claude Sonnet 4
1,000,000
tokens
Max output: 64,000 tokens
Speed Performance
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokens/second | 0.0 tok/s | 70.3 tok/s | |
| Time to First Token | 0.00s | 1.14s |
Claude Sonnet 4 responds Infinity% faster on average.
Capabilities
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input) | ||
| Tool/Function Calls | ||
| Reasoning Mode | ||
| Audio Input | ||
| Audio Output | ||
| PDF Input | ||
| Prompt Caching | ||
| Web Search |
License & Release
| Property | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
|---|---|---|
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Author | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | Feb 2026 | May 2025 |
Claude Opus 4.6 Modalities
Input
textimage
Output
text
Claude Sonnet 4 Modalities
Input
imagetextfile
Output
text