Claude Sonnet 4 vs Llama 4 405B
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 specs · Llama 4 405B specs- PriceClaude Sonnet 4
Claude Sonnet 4 publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not.
- Context windowLlama 4 405B
Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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.
- OpennessLlama 4 405B
Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); Claude Sonnet 4 is API-only.
On balance Llama 4 405B edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Claude Sonnet 4's 1. Claude Sonnet 4 publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not. Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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. Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); Claude Sonnet 4 is API-only.
Claude Sonnet 4 is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Llama 4 405B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Sonnet 4 is usually picked for coding llm and rag workloads, while Llama 4 405B sees more deployments in open source llm and fine tuning. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4 | Llama 4 405B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Meta |
| Released | May 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-03 | 2024-12 |
| Open weights | No | Yes (Llama 4 Community License) |
| 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 Sonnet 4$1.05
- Llama 4 405BPricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- SWE-bench Verified65.0
Claude Sonnet 4 fits when…
- Solid all-rounder
- Mature deployment ecosystem
Llama 4 405B fits when…
- Strongest open-weight model at launch
- Multimodal (text + vision)
- Wide hosting availability
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Llama 4 Community License).
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude Sonnet 4 or Llama 4 405B 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?
Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for Claude Sonnet 4.Is Claude Sonnet 4 or Llama 4 405B better for coding?
Both Claude Sonnet 4 and Llama 4 405B 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?
Llama 4 405B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License). Claude Sonnet 4 is API-only.When were Claude Sonnet 4 and Llama 4 405B released?
Claude Sonnet 4 was released by Anthropic on 2025-05-22. Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
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