Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6
At a Glance
| Compare | Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $5.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $5.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $25.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $25.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 200K | 1,000K |
| Model facts checked | Sep 3, 2026View model evidence → | Sep 3, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Document Arenadocument-2026-09-13-a64ca3b12b6e · arena_rating · leader | 1,462.2097% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-5-20251101; 95% CI [1451.78988580, 1472.60655272]; votes 7981; rank 21 | 1,507.05100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-6; 95% CI [1501.18336037, 1512.92390326]; votes 41260; rank 4 |
| LMArena Search Arenasearch-2026-10-13-a64ca3b12b6e · arena_rating · leader | 1,179.5894% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-5-search; 95% CI [1173.98777416, 1185.18060388]; votes 65047; rank 25 | 1,251.37100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-6-search; 95% CI [1246.82915739, 1255.90736955]; votes 173191; rank 3 |
| LiveBench2026-06-25-90f8d44da965 · overall · leader | 77.3998% of row best · percent · claude-opus-4-5-20251101-thinking-64k-high-effort · 15,203 output tokens / case | 78.69100% of row best · percent · claude-opus-4-6-thinking-auto-high-effort · 9,651 output tokens / case |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 0 benchmark wins | 3 benchmark winsOverall lead |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Family | Claude 4 | Claude 4 |
| Model | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Version | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Opus 4.6 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2025-11-24 | 2026-02-05 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-05-01 | 2025-05-01 |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 200K | 1,000K |
| Total parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | Unknown | Unknown |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Provider access | Anthropic (Standard) | Anthropic (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools |
Claude Opus 4.5 Capabilities
Claude Opus 4.6 Capabilities
Related Comparisons
All image comparisons →| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | cross-developer peersimage, text | |
Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 4.7Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | Seed 1.8ByteDance Seed | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs |  Gemma 4 12BGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs |  GPT-5OpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.3-CodexOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.4 NanoOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | o3OpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs | o3-proOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 FAQs
Is Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Opus 4.6, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.5 is $5.00 and Claude Opus 4.6 is $5.00 per million tokens, so they are tied on this metric. Claude Opus 4.5 is $25.00 and Claude Opus 4.6 is $25.00 per million tokens, so they are tied on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Opus 4.5 supports 200,000 tokens and Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1,000,000 tokens.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.6 leads the current overall benchmark count. The result uses 3 protocol-matched benchmarks from 2 publishers; it is not a universal quality score.
Can Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same sourced self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Opus 4.5 is not marked open weight; Claude Opus 4.6 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Opus 4.6 understand images?+
Claude Opus 4.5 is documented with image input; Claude Opus 4.6 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger sourced maximum output. Claude Opus 4.5 supports 64,000 tokens and Claude Opus 4.6 supports 128,000 tokens.
Do Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Opus 4.6 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Opus 4.5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Claude Opus 4.6: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.5 has 1 sourced provider route; Claude Opus 4.6 has 1, a tie.
Which offers better value, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.6?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.