Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
| Characteristic | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Release Date | June 21, 2024 | February 17, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 200K | 200K |
| Context (output) | 200K | 64K |
| Input Price / 1M | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| Output Price / 1M | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Average Score | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Benchmarks | ||
| GPQA | 0.6 | 0.9 |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA0.6 vs 0.9
0.6
0.9
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads in 1 out of 4 comparison categories.
Overall Performance
Both models show comparable average scores: Claude 3.5 Sonnet — 0.8, Claude Sonnet 4.6 — 0.7.
API Cost
API cost is identical: input $3.00/1M, output $15.00/1M tokens.
Context Window
Same context size: 200K tokens.
Recency
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is newer: released 2/17/2026 vs 6/21/2024.
More About These Models
Related Comparisons
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Direct comparison on the SWE-Bench benchmark is not available. We recommend reviewing other metrics on the comparison page.
Which model is cheaper — Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is cheaper for input: $3.00 per 1M tokens vs $3.00.
Which has a larger context window — Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports a larger context: 200,000 tokens vs 200,000.
The Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6 comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.