Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5
| Signal | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Delta | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 100 | -- | |
Benchmarks | 82 | +82 | |
Pricing | 85 | -5 | |
Context window size | 86 | -- | |
Recency | 100 | -- | |
Output Capacity | 85 | -- | |
| Overall Result | 1 wins | of 6 | 1 wins |
Score History
84.7
current score
Tied
right now
84.7
current score
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5 saves you $350.00/month
That's $4200.00/year compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6 at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 85 | 85 | -- |
| Rank | #44 | #43 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Quality Rank | #44 | #43 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Adoption Rank | #44 | #43 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1000K | 1000K | -- |
| Pricing | $3.00/$15.00/M | $2.00/$10.00/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 100 | 100 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Benchmarks | 82 | -- | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Pricing | 85 | 90 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Context window size | 86 | 86 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Recency | 100 | 100 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| Output Capacity | 85 | 85 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 85/100 (rank #44), placing it in the top 85% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 85/100 (rank #43), placing it in the top 86% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 0-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 when you need:
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Claude Sonnet 5 offers 33% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $180.00/month with Claude Sonnet 5 vs $270.00/month with Claude Sonnet 4.6 - a $90.00 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Claude Sonnet 5 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1000K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($10.00/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (85/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5 are extremely close in overall performance (only 0 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Claude Sonnet 5
33% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Anthropic
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input) | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5 saves you $7.80/month
That's 33% cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.6 at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1M | 1M |
| Max Output Tokens | 128,000 | 128,000 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Feb 17, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 |