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Claude 4.1 Opus vs Claude 4 Sonnet

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

Claude 4.1 Opus

51

VS

Claude 4 Sonnet

50

1 categoriesvs0 categories

Pick Claude 4.1 Opus if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

Claude 4.1 Opus
74.5vs72.7

+1.8 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude 4.1 Opus

Claude 4 Sonnet

Price (per 1M tokens)

$15 / $75

$3 / $15

Speed

29 t/s

40 t/s

Latency (TTFT)

1.66s

1.33s

Context Window

200K

200K

Quick Verdict

Pick Claude 4.1 Opus if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Claude 4.1 Opus finishes one point ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 51 to 50. That is enough to call, but not enough to treat as a blowout. This matchup comes down to a few meaningful edges rather than one model dominating the board.

Claude 4.1 Opus's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 74.5 against 72.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 74.5% to 72.7%.

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 4 Sonnet. That is roughly 5.0x on output cost alone.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude 4.1 Opus or Claude 4 Sonnet?

Claude 4.1 Opus is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 51 to 50. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 74.5% and 72.7%.

Which is better for coding, Claude 4.1 Opus or Claude 4 Sonnet?

Claude 4.1 Opus has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 74.5 versus 72.7. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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Last updated: June 2, 2026

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