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Model comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude 4.1 Opus

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 1 shared benchmark result across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

47.74/100
Margin
1.9pts
← winning
45.88/100
0 category wins1 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude 3.5 Sonnet #132 (Estimated); Claude 4.1 Opus #142 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 4.1 Opus share 1 comparable benchmark result. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 3 results are unique to Claude 3.5 Sonnet; 3 to Claude 4.1 Opus.

Updated July 20, 2026
Shared results
1
Claude 3.5 Sonnet only
3
Claude 4.1 Opus only
3
Comparable categories
1 / 8

Pick Claude 3.5 Sonnet if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4.1 Opus only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 1 shared benchmark result across 1 evidence category; 1 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the cleaner BenchAlign overall profile here, landing at 47.74 versus 45.88. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.

Claude 4.1 Opus is also the more expensive model on tokens at $15.00 input / $75.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Sonnet. That is roughly 5.0x on output cost alone.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 4.1 Opus
CategoryClaude 3.5 SonnetΔClaude 4.1 Opus
CodingClaude 3.5 Sonnet49.0Margin→ 25.5Claude 4.1 Opus74.5
KnowledgeClaude 3.5 Sonnet59.4MarginNo overlapClaude 4.1 OpusNot measured
MathClaude 3.5 Sonnet1.6MarginNo overlapClaude 4.1 OpusNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude 3.5 SonnetB · Claude 4.1 Opus

  1. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 49%B 74.5%
    Winner: Claude 4.1 OpusΔ 25.5
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 49%; Claude 4.1 Opus scored 74.5%. Claude 4.1 Opus wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 4.1 OpusComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet$3 input / $15 outputClaude 4.1 Opus$15 input / $75 outputClaude 3.5 Sonnet has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableClaude 4.1 Opus29 tok/sA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableClaude 4.1 Opus1.66 sA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet200KClaude 4.1 Opus200KListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 4.1 OpusResult
JobBenchSource —21.9%Not comparable
CodingClaude 4.1 Opus wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 4.1 OpusResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 49%74.5%Claude 4.1 Opus leads
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 4.1 OpusResult
GPQASource 59.4%—Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource —28.2%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 4.1 OpusResult
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 2.069%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 0.000%—Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 4.1 OpusResult
Design Arena WebsiteSource —1209Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude 4.1 Opus?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 47.74 to 45.88. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 49% and 74.5%.

Which is better for coding, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude 4.1 Opus?

Claude 4.1 Opus has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 74.5 versus 49. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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