Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
| Characteristic | Claude Opus 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Release Date | November 23, 2025 | February 17, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 200K | 200K |
| Context (output) | 64K | 64K |
| Input Price / 1M | $5.00 | $3.00 |
| Output Price / 1M | $25.00 | $15.00 |
| Average Score | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Benchmarks | ||
| GPQA | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| MMMLU | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 0.8 | 0.8 |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Claude Opus 4.5
Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA0.9 vs 0.9
0.9
0.9
MMMLU0.9 vs 0.9
0.9
0.9
SWE-Bench Verified0.8 vs 0.8
0.8
0.8
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads in 2 out of 5 comparison categories.
Overall Performance
Both models show comparable average scores: Claude Opus 4.5 — 0.9, Claude Sonnet 4.6 — 0.7.
Programming
On SWE-Bench, both models are nearly equal: Claude Opus 4.5 — 0.8, Claude Sonnet 4.6 — 0.8.
API Cost
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is 1.7x cheaper: input $3.00/1M vs $5.00/1M tokens.
Context Window
Same context size: 200K tokens.
Recency
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is newer: released 2/17/2026 vs 11/23/2025.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
On the SWE-Bench benchmark, Claude Opus 4.5 shows a better result: 0.8 vs 0.8.
Which model is cheaper — Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper for input: $3.00 per 1M tokens vs $5.00.
Which has a larger context window — Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Opus 4.5 supports a larger context: 200,000 tokens vs 200,000.
The Claude Opus 4.5 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 Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.