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Model comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude Opus 4.5

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 4 shared benchmark results across 3 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

47.74/100
Margin
16.5pts
winning →
64.22/100
1 category wins2 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude 3.5 Sonnet #132 (Estimated); Claude Opus 4.5 #34 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude Opus 4.5 share 4 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 0 results are unique to Claude 3.5 Sonnet; 55 to Claude Opus 4.5.

Updated July 20, 2026
Shared results
4
Claude 3.5 Sonnet only
0
Claude Opus 4.5 only
55
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 4 shared benchmark results across 3 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Opus 4.5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 64.22 to 47.74. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Opus 4.5's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 57.5 against 1.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 49% to 80.9%. Claude 3.5 Sonnet does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude Opus 4.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

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 Opus 4.5
CategoryClaude 3.5 SonnetΔClaude Opus 4.5
MathClaude 3.5 Sonnet1.6Margin→ 55.9Claude Opus 4.557.5
CodingClaude 3.5 Sonnet49.0Margin→ 22.7Claude Opus 4.571.7
KnowledgeClaude 3.5 Sonnet59.4Margin← 1.3Claude Opus 4.558.1
AgenticClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Opus 4.562.6
ReasoningClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Opus 4.564.4
MultilingualClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Opus 4.585.7
MultimodalClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Opus 4.569.9
Inst. FollowingClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Opus 4.569.5

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Claude 3.5 SonnetB · Claude Opus 4.5

  1. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 49%B 80.9%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 31.9
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 49%; Claude Opus 4.5 scored 80.9%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  2. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 59.4%B 87%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 27.6
    GPQA: Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 59.4%; Claude Opus 4.5 scored 87%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  3. FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 2.069%B 20.690%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 18.6
    FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3): Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 2.069%; Claude Opus 4.5 scored 20.690%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  4. FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 0.000%B 4.167%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 4.2
    FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4): Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 0.000%; Claude Opus 4.5 scored 4.167%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet$3 input / $15 outputClaude Opus 4.5$5 input / $25 outputClaude 3.5 Sonnet has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableClaude Opus 4.546 tok/sA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableClaude Opus 4.51.01 sA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet200KClaude Opus 4.5200KListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source —59.3%Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource —66.3%Not comparable
OSWorldSource —66.3%Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource —59.6%Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource —52.3%Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource —70.2%Not comparable
VITA-BenchSource —23.3%Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource —26.4%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource —43.5%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource —42.3%Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource —71.8%Not comparable
WideResearchSource —76.4%Not comparable
CyberGymSource —50.6%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource —86.3%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource —64.23%Not comparable
JobBenchSource —32.3%Not comparable
CodingClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 49%80.9%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
LiveCodeBench v6Source —84.8%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource —57.1%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource —77.5%Not comparable
NL2RepoSource —43.2%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource —47.0%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
LongBench v2Source —64.4%Not comparable
AI-NeedleSource —74%Not comparable
AA-LCRSource —65.3%Not comparable
CritPtSource —0.3%Not comparable
KnowledgeClaude 3.5 Sonnet wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
GPQASource 59.4%87%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
SuperGPQASource —70.6%Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource —89.5%Not comparable
MMLU-ReduxSource —96.6%Not comparable
C-EvalSource —92.2%Not comparable
HLESource —30.8%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource —34.7%Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource —81.0%Not comparable
AA-HLESource —12.9%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource —-3.9%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource —40.7%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource —75.4%Not comparable
AA MMLU-ProSource —88.9%Not comparable
MathClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 2.069%20.690%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 0.000%4.167%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AIME26Source —95.1%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source —92.9%Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source —93.3%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source —85.3%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource —84.0%Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
MMLU-ProXSource —85.7%Not comparable
NOVA-63Source —56.7%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
MMMU-ProSource —70.6%Not comparable
MathVisionSource —74.3%Not comparable
CharXivSource —68.5%Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource —84.4%Not comparable
ScreenSpot ProSource —45.7%Not comparable
V*Source —67.0%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource —71.2%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource —1279Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Opus 4.5Result
IFEvalSource —90.9%Not comparable
IFBenchSource —58%Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource —43.0%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Opus 4.5?

Claude Opus 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 64.22 to 47.74. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 49% and 80.9%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Opus 4.5?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 59.4 versus 58.1. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Opus 4.5?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 71.7 versus 49. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Opus 4.5?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 57.5 versus 1.6. Inside this category, FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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