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Model comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs o4-mini (high)

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 2 shared benchmark results across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

47.74/100
Margin
2.2pts
winning →
49.98/100
0 category wins1 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude 3.5 Sonnet #132 (Estimated); o4-mini (high) #118 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and o4-mini (high) share 2 comparable benchmark results. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 2 results are unique to Claude 3.5 Sonnet; 0 to o4-mini (high).

Updated July 20, 2026
Shared results
2
Claude 3.5 Sonnet only
2
o4-mini (high) only
0
Comparable categories
1 / 8

Pick o4-mini (high) if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 2 shared benchmark results 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

o4-mini (high) has the cleaner BenchAlign overall profile here, landing at 49.98 versus 47.74. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.

o4-mini (high)'s sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 20.2 against 1.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3), 2.069% to 24.828%.

o4-mini (high) 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.

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 o4-mini (high)
CategoryClaude 3.5 SonnetΔo4-mini (high)
MathClaude 3.5 Sonnet1.6Margin→ 18.6o4-mini (high)20.2
CodingClaude 3.5 Sonnet49.0MarginNo overlapo4-mini (high)Not measured
KnowledgeClaude 3.5 Sonnet59.4MarginNo overlapo4-mini (high)Not measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Claude 3.5 SonnetB · o4-mini (high)

  1. FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 2.069%B 24.828%
    Winner: o4-mini (high)Δ 22.8
    FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3): Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 2.069%; o4-mini (high) scored 24.828%. o4-mini (high) wins this benchmark.

  2. FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 0.000%B 6.250%
    Winner: o4-mini (high)Δ 6.3
    FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4): Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 0.000%; o4-mini (high) scored 6.250%. o4-mini (high) wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricClaude 3.5 Sonneto4-mini (high)Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet$3 input / $15 outputo4-mini (high)Not availableA complete price comparison is not available.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableo4-mini (high)161 tok/sA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableo4-mini (high)21.94 sA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet200Ko4-mini (high)200KListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Coding
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 Sonneto4-mini (high)Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 49%—Not comparable
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 Sonneto4-mini (high)Result
GPQASource 59.4%—Not comparable
Matho4-mini (high) wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 Sonneto4-mini (high)Result
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 2.069%24.828%o4-mini (high) leads
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 0.000%6.250%o4-mini (high) leads
Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or o4-mini (high)?

o4-mini (high) is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 49.98 to 47.74. The biggest single separator in this matchup is FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3), where the scores are 2.069% and 24.828%.

Which is better for math, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or o4-mini (high)?

o4-mini (high) has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 20.2 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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