Head-to-head comparison across 4benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Opus 4.5
80
Claude Sonnet 4.5
68
Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.5 #7 · Claude Sonnet 4.5 unranked
Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude Sonnet 4.5 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Agentic
+7.2 difference
Coding
+11.3 difference
Reasoning
+50.8 difference
Knowledge
+17.2 difference
Claude Opus 4.5
Claude Sonnet 4.5
$null / $null
$3 / $15
46 t/s
N/A
1.01s
N/A
200K
200K
Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude Sonnet 4.5 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Claude Opus 4.5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 80 to 68. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Opus 4.5's sharpest advantage is in reasoning, where it averages 64.4 against 13.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 59.3% to 50%. Claude Sonnet 4.5 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Claude Opus 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 80 to 68. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 59.3% and 50%.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.4 versus 66.2. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 77.2 versus 65.9. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 64.4 versus 13.6. Claude Sonnet 4.5 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.5 versus 55.3. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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