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Model comparison

Claude 4.1 Opus vs Claude 4 Sonnet

Data verified

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

45.88/100
Margin
3.1pts
← winning
42.79/100
1 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude 4.1 Opus #142 (Supported); Claude 4 Sonnet #158 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude 4.1 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet share 4 comparable benchmark results. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 0 results are unique to Claude 4.1 Opus; 12 to Claude 4 Sonnet.

Updated July 22, 2026
Shared results
4
Claude 4.1 Opus only
0
Claude 4 Sonnet only
12
Comparable categories
1 / 8

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.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 4 shared benchmark results across 4 evidence categories; 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 4.1 Opus is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 45.88 to 42.79. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

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.

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 4.1 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet
CategoryClaude 4.1 OpusΔClaude 4 Sonnet
CodingClaude 4.1 Opus74.5Margin← 1.8Claude 4 Sonnet72.7

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Claude 4.1 OpusB · Claude 4 Sonnet

  1. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 74.5%B 72.7%
    Winner: Claude 4.1 OpusΔ 1.8
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude 4.1 Opus scored 74.5%; Claude 4 Sonnet scored 72.7%. 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 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude 4.1 Opus$15 input / $75 outputClaude 4 Sonnet$3 input / $15 outputClaude 4 Sonnet has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude 4.1 Opus29 tok/sClaude 4 Sonnet40 tok/sClaude 4 Sonnet has the higher measured throughput.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude 4.1 Opus1.66 sClaude 4 Sonnet1.33 sClaude 4 Sonnet reaches the first token sooner.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude 4.1 Opus200KClaude 4 Sonnet200KListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetResult
JobBenchSource 21.9%18.4%Claude 4.1 Opus leads
τ²-bench resultsSource —52.3%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource —39.66%Not comparable
CodingClaude 4.1 Opus wins
BenchmarkClaude 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 74.5%72.7%Claude 4.1 Opus leads
AA-SciCodeSource —37.3%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetResult
AA-LCRSource —44.3%Not comparable
CritPtSource —1.1%Not comparable
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetResult
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 28.2%25.5%Claude 4.1 Opus leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource —68.3%Not comparable
AA-HLESource —4.0%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource —-9.2%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource —22.4%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource —40.8%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetResult
Design Arena WebsiteSource 12071175Claude 4.1 Opus leads
AA-MMMU-ProSource —62.4%Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkClaude 4.1 OpusClaude 4 SonnetResult
AA-IFBenchSource —45.4%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (2)

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

Claude 4.1 Opus is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 45.88 to 42.79. 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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