Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic) and Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead by 18 points (1,574 vs 1,556; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 4.6 resolves 75.9% versus 73.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Claude Sonnet 5 streams faster (118 tok/s) while Claude Sonnet 5 is the cheaper output token ($10/1M). Claude Opus 4.6 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 Opus 4.6

Follow-on Opus release. Slightly behind 4.5 on official SWE-bench bash-only in the last published sweep; stronger long-horizon agent traces.

Elo 1,574$25/1M out

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 5

Anthropic workhorse. Official $2/$10 per 1M tokens made permanent on Aug 10 2026.

Elo 1,556$10/1M out

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Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 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 Opus 4.6 (5)vsClaude Sonnet 5 (4)

Claude Opus 4.6: 5W (56%)Overall: Claude Opus 4.6Claude Sonnet 5: 4W (44%)

← Claude Opus 4.61 tiesClaude Sonnet 5 →

Claude Opus 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,574vs1,556

Coding Elo

1,570vs1,562

SWE-bench

75.9%vs73.8%

LiveBench

72%vs70.4%

GPQA Diamond

84.8%vs82.8%

Claude Opus 4.6: 5WClaude Sonnet 5: 0W

Claude Sonnet 5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

64 tok/svs118 tok/s

Time to first token

360 msvs175 ms

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WClaude Sonnet 5: 2W

Claude Sonnet 5 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$10/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$2/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WClaude Sonnet 5: 2W

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 Opus 4.6 3/6

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 4.6

18 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Sonnet 5

54 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Claude Sonnet 5

$15.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+1%1,574

EloHigh is better

1,556

Code Elo

High is better

+1%1,570

Code EloHigh is better

1,562

LiveBench

High is better

+2%72%

LiveBenchHigh is better

70.4%

SWE-bench

High is better

+3%75.9%

SWE-benchHigh is better

73.8%

GPQA

High is better

+2%84.8%

GPQAHigh is better

82.8%

TTFT

Low is better

360 ms

TTFTLow is better

175 ms+106%

Speed

High is better

64 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

118 tok/s+84%

In $

Low is better

$5/1M

In $Low is better

$2/1M+150%

Out $

Low is better

$25/1M

Out $Low is better

$10/1M+150%

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 60% with Claude Sonnet 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 Opus 4.6$550.00 / mo

In: $175.00Out: $375.00

Claude Sonnet 5$220.00 / mo

In: $70.00Out: $150.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Claude Sonnet 5 is estimated to save $330.00/month ($3,960/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 4.6:Pick Claude Opus 4.6 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Sonnet 5:Pick Claude Sonnet 5 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Claude Sonnet 5:Pick Claude Sonnet 5 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 5

Lower output list price ($10/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 5

Lower TTFT (175 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.6

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 5	Lower output list price ($10/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 5	Lower TTFT (175 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.6	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4.6	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

compareAug 10, 2026

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Usually Sonnet 5 vs Opus 5. Coding delta versus output $/1M. The workhorse question.

priceAug 10, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5 at $2/$10: the 2026 Anthropic workhorse

Aug 10 2026 made the $2/$10 list permanent. Sonnet is the default Claude unless the repo is actually on fire.

launchMay 10, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Slightly behind 4.5 on one official SWE-bench sweep; stronger long-horizon traces. We keep the row for old vs URLs.

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 Opus 4.6

Elo 1,574

LiveBench72%

SWE-bench75.9%

Speed64 tok/s

Output cost$25/1M

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 5

Elo 1,556

LiveBench70.4%

SWE-bench73.8%

Speed118 tok/s

Output cost$10/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?: Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?: Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 73.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Claude Sonnet 5 output tokens are $10/1M versus $25/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?: Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower time-to-first-token (175 ms vs 360 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
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 Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Opus 4.6 matchups →|All Claude Sonnet 5 matchups →

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (previous opus)Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8 (next opus)Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 (previous sonnet)Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 Gemini 3.6 Pro vs Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.6 (5)vsClaude Sonnet 5 (4)

Claude Opus 4.6: 5W (56%)Overall: Claude Opus 4.6Claude Sonnet 5: 4W (44%)

← Claude Opus 4.61 tiesClaude Sonnet 5 →

Claude Opus 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,574vs1,556

Coding Elo

1,570vs1,562

SWE-bench

75.9%vs73.8%

LiveBench

72%vs70.4%

GPQA Diamond

84.8%vs82.8%

Claude Opus 4.6: 5WClaude Sonnet 5: 0W

Claude Sonnet 5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

64 tok/svs118 tok/s

Time to first token

360 msvs175 ms

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WClaude Sonnet 5: 2W

Claude Sonnet 5 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$10/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$2/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WClaude Sonnet 5: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 5

Lower output list price ($10/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 5

Lower TTFT (175 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.6

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 5	Lower output list price ($10/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 5	Lower TTFT (175 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.6	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4.6	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 73.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Claude Sonnet 5 output tokens are $10/1M versus $25/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower time-to-first-token (175 ms vs 360 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.

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 Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 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 Opus 4.6

Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Claude Sonnet 5 at $2/$10: the 2026 Anthropic workhorse

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

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 Opus 4.6

Claude Sonnet 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 Opus 4.6

Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Claude Sonnet 5 at $2/$10: the 2026 Anthropic workhorse

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

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 Opus 4.6

Claude Sonnet 5

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons