Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceClaude 3.7 Sonnet
Claude 3.7 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Claude Sonnet 4.6 does not.
- Context windowTie
Both ship a 200K-token context window.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesTie
Both handle text, vision.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Claude 3.7 Sonnet edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Claude Sonnet 4.6's 0. Claude 3.7 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Claude Sonnet 4.6 does not. Both ship a 200K-token context window.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text, vision), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the newer of the two, released 11 months after Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is usually picked for coding llm and creative writing workloads, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 sees more deployments in coding llm and code review. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude 3.7 Sonnet | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Jan 2026 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-10 | , |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs ,
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Claude 3.7 Sonnet$1.05
- Claude Sonnet 4.6Pricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval92.0
- SWE-bench Verified62.3
Claude 3.7 Sonnet fits when…
- First Claude with extended thinking
- Excellent writing and coding quality
- Mature, widely-tested
Claude Sonnet 4.6 fits when…
- Excellent quality-cost ratio
- Strong for code review and writing
- Reliable tool-use
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6 cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
Both Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6 ship a 200K-token context window.Is Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6 better for coding?
Both Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6 released?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet was released by Anthropic on 2025-02-24. Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released by Anthropic on 2026-01-20.
The week's AI launches, in your inbox.
One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.