Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 benchmark

Name: Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude 3 Opus (Anthropic) and Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is ahead by 276 points (1,524 vs 1,248; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 resolves 70.1% versus 38.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Claude Sonnet 4.5 streams faster (88 tok/s) while Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the cheaper output token ($15/1M). Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude 3 Opus

Original Claude 3 flagship. Kept so opus 3 vs later Opus and vs GPT-4o still resolve.

Elo 1,248$75/1M out

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Workhorse Anthropic model: most of Opus coding quality at a mid-tier price.

Elo 1,524$15/1M out

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Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude 3 Opus (0)vsClaude Sonnet 4.5 (10)

Claude 3 Opus: 0W (0%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5: 10W (100%)

← Claude 3 OpusClaude Sonnet 4.5 →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,248vs1,524

Coding Elo

—vs1,531

SWE-bench

38.4%vs70.1%

LiveBench

46.2%vs67.4%

GPQA Diamond

50.4%vs80.2%

Claude 3 Opus: 0WClaude Sonnet 4.5: 5W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

48 tok/svs88 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs240 ms

Claude 3 Opus: 0WClaude Sonnet 4.5: 2W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

200kvs1M

Claude 3 Opus: 0WClaude Sonnet 4.5: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Sonnet 4.5 6/6

Preference Elo

Claude Sonnet 4.5

276 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Sonnet 4.5

40 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Claude Sonnet 4.5

$60.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,248

EloHigh is better

1,524+22%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,531

LiveBench

High is better

46.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

67.4%+46%

SWE-bench

High is better

38.4%

SWE-benchHigh is better

70.1%+83%

GPQA

High is better

50.4%

GPQAHigh is better

80.2%+59%

TTFT

Low is better

420 ms

TTFTLow is better

240 ms+75%

Speed

High is better

48 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

88 tok/s+83%

In $

Low is better

$15/1M

In $Low is better

$3/1M+400%

Out $

Low is better

$75/1M

Out $Low is better

$15/1M+400%

Context

High is better

200k

ContextHigh is better

1M+400%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 80% with Claude Sonnet 4.5

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude 3 Opus$1,650.00 / mo

In: $525.00Out: $1125.00

Claude Sonnet 4.5$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is estimated to save $1,320.00/month ($15,840/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Sonnet 4.5:Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Sonnet 4.5:Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Claude Sonnet 4.5:Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4.5

Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 4.5

Lower output list price ($15/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4.5

Lower TTFT (240 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4.5

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Lower TTFT (240 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchFeb 18, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Most of Opus 4.5 coding at a mid-tier price. Sonnet 5 replaced it as the buy; 4.5 remains a compare baseline.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude 3 Opus

Elo 1,248

LiveBench46.2%

SWE-bench38.4%

Speed48 tok/s

Output cost$75/1M

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Elo 1,524

LiveBench67.4%

SWE-bench70.1%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,524). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads SWE-bench at 70.1% vs 38.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 output tokens are $15/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the lower time-to-first-token (240 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude 3 Opus and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude 3 Opus matchups →|All Claude Sonnet 4.5 matchups →

Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Opus 4 (next opus)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 (next sonnet)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude 3 Opus (0)vsClaude Sonnet 4.5 (10)

Claude 3 Opus: 0W (0%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5: 10W (100%)

← Claude 3 OpusClaude Sonnet 4.5 →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,248vs1,524

Coding Elo

—vs1,531

SWE-bench

38.4%vs70.1%

LiveBench

46.2%vs67.4%

GPQA Diamond

50.4%vs80.2%

Claude 3 Opus: 0WClaude Sonnet 4.5: 5W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

48 tok/svs88 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs240 ms

Claude 3 Opus: 0WClaude Sonnet 4.5: 2W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

200kvs1M

Claude 3 Opus: 0WClaude Sonnet 4.5: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4.5

Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 4.5

Lower output list price ($15/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4.5

Lower TTFT (240 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4.5

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Lower TTFT (240 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4.5).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,524). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads SWE-bench at 70.1% vs 38.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 output tokens are $15/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the lower time-to-first-token (240 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude 3 Opus and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

Claude 3 Opus

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude 3 Opus

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons