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Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-4o mini

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Claude Sonnet 4.6 specs · GPT-4o mini specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceGPT-4o mini

    GPT-4o mini publishes pricing ($0.60 / 1M output tokens) while Claude Sonnet 4.6 does not.

  • Context windowClaude Sonnet 4.6

    Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • 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.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-4o mini: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. GPT-4o mini publishes pricing ($0.60 / 1M output tokens) while Claude Sonnet 4.6 does not. Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

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 18 months after GPT-4o mini, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is usually picked for coding llm and code review workloads, while GPT-4o mini sees more deployments in customer support and summarization. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude Sonnet 4.6GPT-4o mini
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
ReleasedJan 2026Jul 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision
Context window200K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.15 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$0.60 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoNo
API availableYesYes

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, vs $1.35
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $13.50
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $26.10

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).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Claude Sonnet 4.6Pricing unavailable
  • GPT-4o mini$0.045

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Claude Sonnet 4.6GPT-4o mini
  • MMLU,82.0
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 if

Claude Sonnet 4.6 fits when…

  • Excellent quality-cost ratio
  • Strong for code review and writing
  • Reliable tool-use
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o mini.
Pick GPT-4o mini if

GPT-4o mini fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Fast
  • Mature
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.7GPT-4o mini vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-4o mini 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?
    Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for GPT-4o mini.
  • Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-4o mini better for coding?
    Both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-4o mini 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 Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-4o mini released?
    Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released by Anthropic on 2026-01-20. GPT-4o mini was released by OpenAI on 2024-07-18.
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