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Claude 4.1 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

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

Claude 4.1 Opus

53

VS

Claude Sonnet 4.5

67

0 categoriesvs1 categories

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4.1 Opus only becomes the better choice if its workflow or ecosystem matters more than the raw scoreboard.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

Claude Sonnet 4.5
74.5vs77.2

+2.7 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude 4.1 Opus

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Price (per 1M tokens)

$null / $null

$3 / $15

Speed

29 t/s

N/A

Latency (TTFT)

1.66s

N/A

Context Window

200K

200K

Quick Verdict

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4.1 Opus only becomes the better choice if its workflow or ecosystem matters more than the raw scoreboard.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 67 to 53. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Sonnet 4.5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 77.2 against 74.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 74.5% to 77.2%.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude 4.1 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 67 to 53. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 74.5% and 77.2%.

Which is better for coding, Claude 4.1 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 77.2 versus 74.5. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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Last updated: April 22, 2026

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