Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5 Nano
Updated October 21, 2026. 71 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 34.8 for GPT-5 Nano.
Pick GPT-5 Nano when output tokens cost 37.5x less, or when a solved task costs $0.109 against $1.68.
- Shared results
- 71
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 only
- 46
- GPT-5 Nano only
- 14
- 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, four public coding benchmarks
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 57.8 against 34.8.
2 and 1 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 30.1 against 13.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a AA Agentic Index result, 31.8.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 85.6% against 63.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 92.3% against 81.2%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 87.3% against 76.1%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 1285 against 1101.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 takes 1M tokens against 400K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GPT-5 Nano
Claude Sonnet 4.6 $0.011, GPT-5 Nano $0.0003 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GPT-5 Nano
Claude Sonnet 4.6 $1.68, GPT-5 Nano $0.109.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 57.8 from 2 benchmarks, GPT-5 Nano 34.8 from 1 benchmark.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 43.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- ARC-AGI: Claude Sonnet 4.6 86.5% against GPT-5 Nano 20.7%, 65.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 $15.00 against GPT-5 Nano $0.40 per million output tokens, 37.5x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 takes 1M tokens, GPT-5 Nano 400K.
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.
| Category | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Bars | GPT-5 Nano | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 6 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 14 | 0 | ||
| Math | 5 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 10 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 6 | 0 | ||
| General | 25 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 69 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index60
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 34.8% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| LiveBench coding | 66.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1523 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 63.0 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 82.1% | 70.2% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 77.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 39.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 57.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 49.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 78.9% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| SciCode | 50.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 53.0% | 17.4% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Terminal-Bench | 53.4% | 21.8% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| FrontierCode | 24.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| WeirdML | 66.1% | 38.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1503 | 1351 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1491 | 1345 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1512 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1527 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1529 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 30.1 | 13.0 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 152.8 | 139.2 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 31.8 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1190 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1213 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1212 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1202 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1226 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1177 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench research | 63.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 68.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 23.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 51.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 25.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 38.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 60.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 79.5% | 36.5% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| APEX-Agents | 43.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 9.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 54.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| OSWorld | 72.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $7,204 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index140
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 85.6% | 63.4% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LiveBench reasoning | 86.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.6% | 70.9% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 87.5% | 67.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.6% | 9.5% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 87.4% | 69.4% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ARC-AGI | 86.5% | 20.7% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | 2.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Chess puzzles | 23.0% | 22.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Mystery game puzzles | 16.0% | 9.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| VPCT | Not measured | 37.2% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1485 | 1328 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1500 | 1321 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1493 | 1338 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1306 | 1141 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1311 | 1157 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 92.3% | 81.2% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 93.8% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 89.3% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 83.7 | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 83.7% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 85.8% | 81.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 20.0% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 2.4% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| ProofBench | 45.0% | 12.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 95.2% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1462 | 1317 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1483 | 1326 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index101
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.3% | 76.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 82.1% | 50.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 64.0% | 52.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 65.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 77.1% | 67.4% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 67.7% | 53.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 92.1% | 93.3% | GPT-5 Nano |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 30.4% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 78.0% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 35.5% | 11.7% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: science | 1474 | 1318 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1451 | 1335 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1470 | 1298 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1464 | 1311 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1285 | 1101 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1271 | 1066 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1259 | 1045 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1278 | 1056 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1234 | 966 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1276 | 1084 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1196 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1235 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench design | 71.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index251
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 62.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 46.6% | 30.4% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.9% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 60.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| IFBench | 56.6% | 67.6% | GPT-5 Nano |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.0% | 45.0% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| DTBench | 89.9% | 62.7% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMCA | 46.5% | 7.9% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 44.4% | Only GPT-5 Nano measured |
| ExploitBench | 23.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1458 | 1320 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1476 | 1306 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1435 | 1249 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision | 1283 | 1159 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1472 | 1321 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1440 | 1313 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1491 | 1356 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1428 | 1327 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1420 | 1227 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1410 | 1269 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1465 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1464 | 1360 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1440 | 1296 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1443 | 1314 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1464 | 1311 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1479 | 1312 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1444 | 1283 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1431 | 1268 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1298 | 1170 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1307 | 1176 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1296 | 1152 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1248 | 1110 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1195 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1272 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1482 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-5 Nano | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
GPT-5 Nano costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GPT-5 Nano costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GPT-5 Nano 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.
| Specification | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 | OpenAI GPT-5 Nano |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 17, 2026 | August 7, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 400K |
| Input $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.05 |
| Output $/Mtok | $15.00 | $0.40 |
| Coding index | 57.8 | 34.8 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.68 | $0.109 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 better than GPT-5 Nano for coding?
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 34.8 for GPT-5 Nano. Pick GPT-5 Nano when output tokens cost 37.5x less, or when a solved task costs $0.109 against $1.68.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5 Nano?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; GPT-5 Nano costs $0.05 and $0.40. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $1.68 and GPT-5 Nano $0.109.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5 Nano?
Claude Sonnet 4.6, with 1M tokens against 400K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5 Nano comparison based on?
71 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and GPT-5 Nano's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.