Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5.1 Thinking: Specs & Benchmark Comparison

CharacteristicClaude Sonnet 4.6GPT-5.1 Thinking
CompanyAnthropicOpenAI
Release DateFebruary 17, 2026November 11, 2025
Parameters
MultimodalYesYes
Context (input)200K256K
Context (output)64K128K
Input Price / 1M$3.00$3.00
Output Price / 1M$15.00$12.00
Average Score0.70.9
Benchmarks
GPQA0.90.9

Visual Benchmark Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPT-5.1 Thinking
GPQA0.9 vs 0.9
0.9
0.9

Verdict

GPT-5.1 Thinking leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.

Overall Performance

Both models show comparable average scores: Claude Sonnet 4.6 — 0.7, GPT-5.1 Thinking — 0.9.

API Cost

GPT-5.1 Thinking is 1.2x cheaper: input $3.00/1M vs $3.00/1M tokens.

Context Window

GPT-5.1 Thinking supports a larger context: 256K vs 200K tokens.

Recency

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is newer: released 2/17/2026 vs 11/11/2025.

More About These Models

Related Comparisons

The Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-5.1 Thinking comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5.1 Thinking page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.