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Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6

Updated October 21, 2026. 81 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.

Replace Claude Opus 4.5 Replace Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic
Coding
66.8
Overall
29.1
Output $/M
$25.00
25
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic
Coding
57.8
Overall
30.1
Output $/M
$15.00
55
vs boards won of 81 shared, 1 tied

Decision reading

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 for coding: it scores 66.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 57.8 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 when output tokens cost 1.7x less, or when the context window is larger, 1M against 200K tokens.

Model AClaude Opus 4.5Anthropic66.8/1002 independent benchmarks$1.37 per solved taskModel BClaude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic57.8/1002 independent benchmarks$1.68 per solved task
Shared results
81
Claude Opus 4.5 only
24
Claude Sonnet 4.6 only
36
Like-for-like categories
8 of 9

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

At a glance

Coding index
Claude Opus 4.5 66.8 from 2 benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.6 57.8 from 2 benchmarks.
Widest category
Coding, 6.4 points apart on average over 11 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Claude Opus 4.5 20.6% against Claude Sonnet 4.6 55.8%, 35.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Opus 4.5 $25.00 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 $15.00 per million output tokens, 1.7x apart.
Context window
Claude Opus 4.5 takes 200K tokens, Claude Sonnet 4.6 1M.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryClaude Opus 4.5BarsClaude Sonnet 4.6Ties
Coding38
Intelligence02
Agentic work17
Reasoning210
Math32
Knowledge48
Web design08
General12101 tie
All shared boards25551 tie
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index38
Coding benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
SWE-bench Verified79.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SWE-bench (full test set)52.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SWE-bench Multilingual70.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LiveBench codingNot measured66.6%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena WebDev14941523Claude Sonnet 4.6
AA Coding IndexNot measured63.0Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)83.7%82.1%Claude Opus 4.5
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)76.4%77.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)20.6%55.8%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured39.9%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured57.3%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured49.0%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)87.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SciCodeNot measured50.1%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)47.0%53.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Terminal-Bench63.1%53.4%Claude Opus 4.5
FrontierCodeNot measured24.3%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
GSO-Bench26.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
WeirdML63.7%66.1%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Cybench82.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: coding15031503Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: software and IT14831491Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: React14781512Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: HTML15101527Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: from an imageNot measured1529Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
AA Intelligence Index29.130.1Claude Sonnet 4.6
Epoch Capabilities Index150.1152.8Claude Sonnet 4.6
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
AA Agentic IndexNot measured31.8Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps11591190Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps11561213Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps11891212Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building Android apps11811202Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building Godot gamesNot measured1226Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building gamesNot measured1177Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench researchNot measured63.6%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench browserNot measured68.0%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench long agenticNot measured23.1%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured51.0%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured25.8%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured38.5%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured60.2%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
τ²-Bench Telecom89.5%79.5%Claude Opus 4.5
APEX-AgentsNot measured43.0%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
METR time horizons75.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Remote Labor Index3.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
GDPval45.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
OSWorld 2.0Not measured9.3%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
BALROG43.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
DeepResearch Bench54.8%54.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
OSWorld66.3%72.1%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Vending-Bench 2$4,967$7,204Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index210
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
GPQA Diamond85.9%85.6%Claude Opus 4.5
LiveBench reasoningNot measured86.4%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.0%83.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)86.6%87.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)30.1%33.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)86.0%87.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ARC-AGI80.0%86.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ARC-AGI-237.6%60.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
SimpleBench62.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Chess puzzles14.0%23.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Mystery game puzzles22.0%16.0%Claude Opus 4.5
EBR-bench14.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
VPCT40.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14761485Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: expert14871500Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14821493Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: diagramsNot measured1306Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: homeworkNot measured1311Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index32
Math benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
AIME95.4%92.3%Claude Opus 4.5
MGSM (Vals AI)95.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
AA Math Index91.3Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)91.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
OTIS Mock AIME86.1%85.8%Claude Opus 4.5
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 334.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
FrontierMath, tier 44.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
ProofBench36.0%45.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: math14631462Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: mathematical work14681483Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index48
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
MMLU Pro87.3%87.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.6%82.1%Claude Opus 4.5
CaseLaw (Vals AI)62.6%64.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
CorpFin (Vals AI)65.1%65.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
TaxEval (Vals AI)74.9%77.1%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.7%67.7%Claude Opus 4.5
MedQA (Vals AI)95.9%92.1%Claude Opus 4.5
MedCode (Vals AI)49.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)89.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SimpleQA Verified45.7%35.5%Claude Opus 4.5
GeoBench75.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: science14541474Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14441451Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: legal and government14591470Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: business and finance14481464Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
Web design benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
Design Arena: websites12471285Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: UI components12381271Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: game dev12291259Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: data viz12431278Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: 3D12141234Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: all code categories12421276Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: SVG11801196Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: ASCII art11901235Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveBench designNot measured71.8%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1210
General benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
LiveBench data analysisNot measured76.1%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)Not measured62.5%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
SAGE (Vals AI)52.1%46.6%Claude Opus 4.5
MedScribe (Vals AI)85.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured60.6%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
IFBench58.0%56.6%Claude Opus 4.5
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)77.3%80.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
DTBench89.9%89.9%Tie
LMCA44.5%46.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
CL-bench21.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Furniture assembly28.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
ExploitBenchNot measured23.6%Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text14511458Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: instruction following14781476Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: creative writing14451435Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena VisionNot measured1283Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text: English14611472Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: non-English14381440Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Chinese14701491Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: German14491428Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Japanese14171420Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Korean14241410Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: French14711465Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Spanish14571464Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Russian14471440Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Polish14391443Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: multi-turn14661464Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: longer queries14791479Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: writing and language14521444Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14341431Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Vision: EnglishNot measured1298Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: ChineseNot measured1307Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: reading textNot measured1296Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: humorNot measured1248Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing thingsNot measured1195Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writingNot measured1272Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Document14621482Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.6Leader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

Claude Opus 4.5$0.018Fits in one request
Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.011Fits in one request

Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Opus 4.5$0.325Fits in one request
Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.195Fits in one request

Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Opus 4.5$1.25Exceeds the context window
Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.750Fits in one request

Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6
MakerAnthropicAnthropic
WeightsNo public weights listedNo public weights listed
ReleasedNovember 24, 2025February 17, 2026
Context window200K1M
Input $/Mtok$5.00$3.00
Output $/Mtok$25.00$15.00
Coding index66.857.8
Independent measurements behind it22
Cost per solved task$1.37$1.68
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Opus 4.5 better than Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding?

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 for coding: it scores 66.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 57.8 for Claude Sonnet 4.6. Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 when output tokens cost 1.7x less, or when the context window is larger, 1M against 200K tokens.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Claude Opus 4.5 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 and $15.00. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Opus 4.5 costs $1.37 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 $1.68.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Claude Sonnet 4.6, with 1M tokens against 200K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 comparison based on?

81 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Claude Opus 4.5's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Claude Sonnet 4.6's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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