Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude Opus 4.6
How do these models stack up? Below is an expert side-by-side comparison of specifications, context window capacity, live pricing per million tokens, and standardized benchmark scores for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude Opus 4.6.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was Anthropic's breakout model of 2024, widely regarded as one of the most capable commercial LLMs of its generation. It earned widespread developer praise for its exceptional coding ability, nuanced long-form writing, and reliable complex reasoning across a 200,000-token context window. Claude 3.5 Sonnet introduced computer-use capabilities, enabling it to interact with desktop environments, web browsers, and software tools autonomously. Available via API at $3/MTok for input, it continues to be a popular choice for developers who want a well-rounded, safety-aligned model with strong benchmark performance for coding, analysis, and content generation tasks.
Claude Opus 4.6
Opus 4.6 is Anthropic’s strongest model for coding and long-running professional tasks. It is built for agents that operate across entire workflows rather than single prompts, making it especially effective...
Technical Specifications
| Specification | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Context Window | 200,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Agent Suitability | N/A | 95/100 |
| Time to First Token (TTFT) | N/A | 500 ms |
| Deployment Model | N/A | managed api |
| Production Stability | stable | stable |
| API Available | Yes | Yes |
| Released Date | 2024-06-21 | 2026-02-04 |
API Pricing Comparison
Input Price per Million Tokens
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
$3.00
Claude Opus 4.6
$5.00
Output Price per Million Tokens
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
$15.00
Claude Opus 4.6
$25.00
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Benchmark Performance Metrics
Scores show the raw performance percentages verified across key evaluation suites. Higher bars indicate superior accuracy and capability in that domain.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet Quirks & Gotchas
No developer gotchas reported.
Claude Opus 4.6 Quirks & Gotchas
- ▸Best for long-context document analysis and legal review
- ▸Tool calling requires structured prompt — prone to verbose refusal without explicit output schema