# Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/claude-sonnet-4-5-vs-claude-sonnet-4-6
- Last updated: October 17, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 8
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the higher overall point estimate 55.89 to 47.96. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in reasoning, where the averages are 22.9 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and 62.8 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-2 in Reasoning, with scores of 13.6% and 58.3%.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Reasoning | Non-Reasoning | Non-Reasoning |
| Context | 200K | 200K |
| Overall Score | 47.96 | 55.89 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 12 | 28 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $3.00 / $15.00 | $3.00 / $15.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: 35.1 (Estimated · #81/128)
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: 46.3 (Supported · #55/128)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 50% | 59.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| OSWorld-Verified | 61.4% | 72.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| VITA-Bench | 17.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Gert Labs | 48.51% | 62.92% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| JobBench | 27.7% | 36.9% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Claw-Eval | Coming soon | 67.8% | Coming soon |
| CyberGym | Coming soon | 65.2% | Coming soon |
| OSWorld 2.0 | Coming soon | 8.3% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | Coming soon | 57.3% | Coming soon |
| ApprenticeBench | Coming soon | 2% | Coming soon |
| MazeBench | Coming soon | 0% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: 44.7 (Supported · #54/150)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.2% | 79.6% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 50.0% | 59.1% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| SWE-Rebench | Coming soon | 60.7% | Coming soon |
| React Native Evals | Coming soon | 80.6% | Coming soon |
| Vibe Code Bench | Coming soon | 51.48% | Coming soon |
| cursorBench31 | Coming soon | 48.8% | Coming soon |
| FrontierCode 1.1 Main | Coming soon | 24.3% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | Coming soon | 82.1% | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Coming soon | 77.4% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: 22.9 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: 62.8 (Unranked · 4 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 13.6% | 58.3% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| ARC-AGI-1 | Coming soon | 86.00% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: 58.7 (#45/54)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CharXiv | Coming soon | 77.4% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: 55.4 (Supported · #58/184)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 83.4% | 89.9% | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| SuperGPQA | Coming soon | 95% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | Coming soon | 79.2% | Coming soon |
| HLE | Coming soon | 49% | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | Coming soon | 85.6% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | Coming soon | 87.3% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: 48 (#99/148)

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 public-lane score: 36.4 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 87% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) | 23.860% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) | 2.439% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6?

The widest category gap is in reasoning, where the averages are 22.9 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and 62.8 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.

### How many benchmarks does Claude Sonnet 4.5 cover on BenchLM?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 currently has 12 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Claude Sonnet 4.6 cover on BenchLM?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 currently has 28 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking](/compare/claude-sonnet-4-5-vs-claude-sonnet-4-5-thinking)
- [Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking](/compare/claude-sonnet-4-5-thinking-vs-claude-sonnet-4-6)
- [Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-claude-sonnet-4-5)
- [Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-claude-sonnet-4-6)

## Explore More

- [Claude Sonnet 4.5 profile](/models/claude-sonnet-4-5)
- [Claude Sonnet 4.6 profile](/models/claude-sonnet-4-6)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)