Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Opus 4.6: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
| Characteristic | Claude 3 Opus | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Release Date | February 29, 2024 | February 4, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 200K | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 200K | 128K |
| Input Price / 1M | $15.00 | $5.00 |
| Output Price / 1M | $75.00 | $25.00 |
| Average Score | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Benchmarks | ||
| GPQA | 0.5 | 0.9 |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Claude 3 Opus
Claude Opus 4.6
GPQA0.5 vs 0.9
0.5
0.9
Verdict
Claude Opus 4.6 leads in 3 out of 4 comparison categories.
Overall Performance
Both models show comparable average scores: Claude 3 Opus — 0.8, Claude Opus 4.6 — 0.8.
API Cost
Claude Opus 4.6 is 3.0x cheaper: input $5.00/1M vs $15.00/1M tokens.
Context Window
Claude Opus 4.6 supports a larger context: 1M vs 200K tokens.
Recency
Claude Opus 4.6 is newer: released 2/4/2026 vs 2/29/2024.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude 3 Opus or Claude Opus 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 Opus or Claude Opus 4.6?
Claude Opus 4.6 is cheaper for input: $5.00 per 1M tokens vs $15.00.
Which has a larger context window — Claude 3 Opus or Claude Opus 4.6?
Claude Opus 4.6 supports a larger context: 1,000,000 tokens vs 200,000.
The Claude 3 Opus and Claude Opus 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 Opus or Claude Opus 4.6 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.