Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
At a Glance
| Compare | Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5 | #27 of 4655.4 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 36.9–70.3 | #24 of 4660.3 score · 3/3 sources · complete |
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | #40 of 44$0.380 per LiveBench case | #31 of 44$0.198 per LiveBench case |
| EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5 | #36 of 3838.0 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 28.8–45.4 | #31 of 3847.3 score · 3/3 sources · complete |
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $5.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $3.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $25.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $15.00Anthropic ↗ · 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 Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Document Arenadocument-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,462.2099% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-5-20251101; 95% CI [1451.78988580, 1472.60655272]; votes 7981; rank 21 | 1,482.24100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-4-6; 95% CI [1476.36427265, 1488.10617859]; votes 57813; rank 11 |
| LMArena Search Arenasearch-2026-08-24-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,179.6497% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-5-search; 95% CI [1174.02872051, 1185.26030035]; votes 61573; rank 19 | 1,221.23100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-4-6-search; 95% CI [1216.39472071, 1226.06821163]; votes 134905; rank 7 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,447.0899% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-5-20251101-high-32k; 95% CI [1443.17965746, 1450.98398333]; votes 36239; rank 49 | 1,458.26100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-4-6; 95% CI [1454.67519650, 1461.85096774]; votes 66208; rank 35 |
| LiveBench2026-06-25 · overall · leader | 77.39100% of row best · percent · claude-opus-4-5-20251101-thinking-64k-high-effort · 15,203 output tokens / case | 77.11100% of row best · percent · claude-sonnet-4-6-thinking-auto-medium-effort · 13,226 output tokens / case |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 1 benchmark win | 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 Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Family | Claude 4 | Claude 4 |
| Model | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Version | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2025-11-24 | 2026-02-17 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-05-01 | 2025-08-01 |
| 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), Deepinfra (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools |
Claude Opus 4.5 Capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.6 Capabilities
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Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 FAQs
Is Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.5 is $5.00 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 is $3.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper on this metric. Claude Opus 4.5 is $25.00 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 is $15.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?+
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Opus 4.5 supports 200K and Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 1,000K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?+
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads the current overall benchmark count. The result uses 4 protocol-matched benchmarks from 2 publishers; it is not a universal quality score.
Can Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Opus 4.5 is not marked open weight; Claude Sonnet 4.6 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 understand images?+
Claude Opus 4.5 is documented with image input; Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.6?+
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the larger sourced maximum output: Claude Opus 4.5 supports 64K and Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 128K output tokens.
Do Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Opus 4.5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.6?+
Claude Opus 4.5 has 1 sourced provider route; Claude Sonnet 4.6 has 2, so Claude Sonnet 4.6 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 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.