Model comparison
Claude 4 Sonnet vs Claude Opus 4.6
Head-to-head evidence from 16 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Claude 4 Sonnet #158 (Supported); Claude Opus 4.6 #16 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Claude 4 Sonnet and Claude Opus 4.6 share 16 comparable benchmark results. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 0 results are unique to Claude 4 Sonnet; 30 to Claude Opus 4.6.
Updated July 20, 2026- Shared results
- 16
- Claude 4 Sonnet only
- 0
- Claude Opus 4.6 only
- 30
- Comparable categories
- 1 / 8
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 16 shared benchmark results across 6 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 Opus 4.6 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 68.59 to 42.79. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Opus 4.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude 4 Sonnet. Claude Opus 4.6 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude 4 Sonnet.
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 | Claude 4 Sonnet | Δ | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | Claude 4 Sonnet72.7 | Margin← 4.6 | Claude Opus 4.668.1 |
| Agentic | Claude 4 SonnetNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Claude Opus 4.673.0 |
| Knowledge | Claude 4 SonnetNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Claude Opus 4.669.1 |
| Math | Claude 4 SonnetNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Claude Opus 4.636.3 |
| Multimodal | Claude 4 SonnetNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Claude Opus 4.677.3 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
SWE-bench Verified
CodingA 72.7%B 80.8%Winner: Claude Opus 4.6Δ 8.1SWE-bench Verified: Claude 4 Sonnet scored 72.7%; Claude Opus 4.6 scored 80.8%. Claude Opus 4.6 wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Claude 4 Sonnet | Claude Opus 4.6 | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Claude 4 Sonnet$3 input / $15 output | Claude Opus 4.6$5 input / $25 output | Claude 4 Sonnet has the lower combined listed price. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Claude 4 Sonnet40 tok/s | Claude Opus 4.640 tok/s | Measured throughput is equal. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Claude 4 Sonnet1.33 s | Claude Opus 4.61.78 s | Claude 4 Sonnet reaches the first token sooner. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Claude 4 Sonnet200K | Claude Opus 4.61M | Claude Opus 4.6 lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic10 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 4 Sonnet | Claude Opus 4.6 | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-bench resultsSource | 52.3% | 84.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| Gert LabsSource | 39.66% | 61.85% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| JobBenchSource | 18.4% | 36.7% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 65.4% | Not comparable |
| BrowseCompSource | — | 83.7% | Not comparable |
| OSWorld-VerifiedSource | — | 72.7% | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 70.4% | Not comparable |
| DeepSearchQASource | — | 73.7% | Not comparable |
| CyberGymSource | — | 66.6% | Not comparable |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | — | 19.9% | Not comparable |
CodingClaude 4 Sonnet wins9 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 4 Sonnet | Claude Opus 4.6 | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 72.7% | 80.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 37.3% | 45.7% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| SWE-bench Verified*Source | — | 75.6% | Not comparable |
| LiveCodeBench ProSource | — | 70.7% | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | — | 53.4% | Not comparable |
| SWE-RebenchSource | — | 65.3% | Not comparable |
| React Native EvalsSource | — | 84.1% | Not comparable |
| Vibe Code BenchSource | — | 57.57% | Not comparable |
| FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource | — | 26.9% | Not comparable |
Reasoning2 benchmarks
Knowledge15 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 4 Sonnet | Claude Opus 4.6 | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 25.5% | 37.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 68.3% | 84.0% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| AA-HLESource | 4.0% | 18.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | -9.2% | 3.5% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 22.4% | 45.2% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 40.8% | 76.0% | Claude 4 Sonnet leads |
| GPQASource | — | 91.3% | Not comparable |
| GPQA-DSource | — | 89.2% | Not comparable |
| SuperGPQASource | — | 95% | Not comparable |
| MMLU-ProSource | — | 82% | Not comparable |
| MMLU-Pro (Arcee)Source | — | 89.1% | Not comparable |
| HLESource | — | 53% | Not comparable |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | — | 40% | Not comparable |
| HealthBench HardSource | — | 14.8% | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (Text)Source | — | 52.1% | Not comparable |
Math3 benchmarks
Multimodal6 benchmarks
Inst. Following1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 4 Sonnet | Claude Opus 4.6 | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-IFBenchSource | 45.4% | 44.6% | Claude 4 Sonnet leads |
Frequently Asked Questions (2)
Which is better, Claude 4 Sonnet or Claude Opus 4.6?
Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 68.59 to 42.79. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 72.7% and 80.8%.
Which is better for coding, Claude 4 Sonnet or Claude Opus 4.6?
Claude 4 Sonnet has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 72.7 versus 68.1. Inside this category, AA-SciCode is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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