Claude Opus 4 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 Opus 4
Claude Opus 4 publishes pricing ($75.00 / 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 Opus 4 edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Claude Sonnet 4.6's 0. Claude Opus 4 publishes pricing ($75.00 / 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 8 months after Claude Opus 4, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Opus 4 is usually picked for coding llm and coding agent 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 Opus 4 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | May 2025 | Jan 2026 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $75.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-03 | , |
| 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$158 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$1,575 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$2,700 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 Opus 4$5.25
- 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.
- HumanEval95.0
- SWE-bench Verified72.5
Claude Opus 4 fits when…
- Set the SWE-bench bar at launch
- Excellent for writing and code
- Strong long-context handling
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 Opus 4 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 Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 ship a 200K-token context window.Is Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4.6 better for coding?
Both Claude Opus 4 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 Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 released?
Claude Opus 4 was released by Anthropic on 2025-05-22. Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released by Anthropic on 2026-01-20.
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