Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5
At a Glance
| Compare | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5 | #12 of 4676.2 score · 3/3 sources · complete | #36 of 4627.7 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing LiveBench · full-core range 18.5–51.8 |
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | #33 of 44$0.241 per LiveBench case | UnrankedNot in the 44-model eligible cohort |
| EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5 | #19 of 3853.2 score · 3/3 sources · complete | UnrankedNot in the 38-model eligible cohort |
| 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 | 1,000K | 200K |
| 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 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-1verified-v1-ba05d69f6453 · verified_score · leader | 94.00100% of row best · percent · Claude Opus 4.6 (120K, High) | 63.6768% of row best · percent · Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Thinking 32K) |
| ARC-AGI-2verified-v2-6c676fa3e9af · verified_score · leader | 69.17100% of row best · percent · Claude Opus 4.6 (120K, High) | 13.6120% of row best · percent · Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Thinking 32K) |
| LMArena Document Arenadocument-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,507.05100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-6; 95% CI [1501.18336037, 1512.92390326]; votes 41260; rank 4 | 1,449.8196% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929; 95% CI [1443.68972646, 1455.92640287]; votes 31455; rank 28 |
| LMArena Search Arenasearch-2026-08-24-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,253.42100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-6-search; 95% CI [1248.44594166, 1258.38585709]; votes 134699; rank 2 | 1,158.4692% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-4-5-search; 95% CI [1153.41447529, 1163.49714967]; votes 127378; rank 24 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader | 1,497.54100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-6; 95% CI [1494.14263199, 1500.94441396]; votes 75878; rank 5 | 1,433.9496% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929-high-32k; 95% CI [1431.13982742, 1436.74901697]; votes 80980; rank 81 |
| ToneBench2026-09-11-10-task-4ef099199c9c · overall_score · unverified | 84.21100% of row best · points · Claude Opus 4.6 · 13,556 output tokens / case | 77.2592% of row best · points · Claude Sonnet 4.5 · 7,415 output tokens / case |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 5 benchmark winsOverall lead | 0 benchmark wins |
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 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Family | Claude 4 | Claude 4 |
| Model | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
| Version | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2025-09-29 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-05-01 | 2025-01-01 |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000K | 200K |
| 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 4.6 Capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Capabilities
Related Comparisons
All image comparisons →| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 FAQs
Is Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.5, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?+
Claude Opus 4.6 is $5.00 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 is $3.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 4.5 is cheaper on this metric. Claude Opus 4.6 is $25.00 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 is $15.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 4.5 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?+
Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1,000K and Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?+
Claude Opus 4.6 leads the current overall benchmark count. The result uses 5 protocol-matched benchmarks from 2 publishers; it is not a universal quality score.
Can Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Opus 4.6 is not marked open weight; Claude Sonnet 4.5 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 understand images?+
Claude Opus 4.6 is documented with image input; Claude Sonnet 4.5 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?+
Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger sourced maximum output: Claude Opus 4.6 supports 128K and Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 64K output tokens.
Do Claude Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Opus 4.6: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Claude Sonnet 4.5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?+
Claude Opus 4.6 has 1 sourced provider route; Claude Sonnet 4.5 has 1, a tie.
Which offers better value, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.5?+
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.