Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Sonnet 4.6
83
o1
58
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o1 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.
Knowledge
+2.0 difference
Claude Sonnet 4.6
o1
$3 / $15
$15 / $60
44 t/s
98 t/s
1.48s
32.29s
200K
200K
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o1 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.
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.
o1 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $15.00 input / $60.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 4.6. That is roughly 4.0x on output cost alone. o1 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 83 to 58. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 89.9% and 75.7%.
o1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 75.7 versus 73.7. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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