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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs o1

Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

41

VS

o1

58

0 categoriesvs1 categories

Pick o1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Knowledge

o1
59.4vs75.7

+16.3 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

o1

Price (per 1M tokens)

$3 / $15

$15 / $60

Speed

N/A

98 t/s

Latency (TTFT)

N/A

32.29s

Context Window

200K

200K

Quick Verdict

Pick o1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

o1 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 58 to 41. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

o1's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 75.7 against 59.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 59.4% to 75.7%.

o1 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $15.00 input / $60.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Sonnet. That is roughly 4.0x on output cost alone. o1 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or o1?

o1 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 58 to 41. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 59.4% and 75.7%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or o1?

o1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 75.7 versus 59.4. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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Last updated: April 24, 2026

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