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Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs o3-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 · o3-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo3-mini

    o3-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 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.

  • ModalitiesClaude Sonnet 4.6

    Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for o3-mini.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Claude Sonnet 4.6 and o3-mini: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. o3-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 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. They differ in modality coverage, Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles text, vision while o3-mini handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the newer of the two, released 12 months after o3-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 o3-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude Sonnet 4.6o3-mini
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
ReleasedJan 2026Jan 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2023-10
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 $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $191

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
  • o3-mini$0.330

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 4.6o3-mini
  • GPQA,79.7
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
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick o3-mini if

o3-mini fits when…

  • Reasoning at mid-tier cost
  • Fast for a thinking model
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 4.7o3-mini vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 or o3-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?
    Both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and o3-mini ship a 200K-token context window.
  • Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 or o3-mini better for coding?
    Both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and o3-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 o3-mini released?
    Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released by Anthropic on 2026-01-20. o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31.
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