Head-to-head comparison across 2benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Sonnet 4.6
83
GPT-4.1
58
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you need the larger 1M context window.
Coding
+11.8 difference
Knowledge
+7.4 difference
Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPT-4.1
$3 / $15
$2 / $8
44 t/s
108 t/s
1.48s
1.02s
200K
1M
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you need the larger 1M context window.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 83 to 58. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Sonnet 4.6's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 66.4 against 54.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 79.6% to 54.6%.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens for GPT-4.1. GPT-4.1 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 83 to 58. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 79.6% and 54.6%.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 73.7 versus 66.3. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 66.4 versus 54.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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