Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 86 to 43. 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 mathematics, where it averages 96.4 against 26.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is AIME 2024, 99 to 26.4.
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.
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
81.3
GPT-4.1
78.3
Claude Sonnet 4.6
72
GPT-4.1
54.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6
96.4
GPT-4.1
26.4
Claude Sonnet 4.6
91
GPT-4.1
87.4
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is ahead overall, 86 to 43. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME 2024, where the scores are 99 and 26.4.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.3 versus 78.3. 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 72 versus 54.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 96.4 versus 26.4. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 91 versus 87.4. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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