Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4 benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4 (Anthropic) and Claude Sonnet 4 (Anthropic) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 4 is ahead by 35 points (1,490 vs 1,455; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 4 resolves 72.5% versus 62.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Claude Sonnet 4 streams faster (92 tok/s) while Claude Sonnet 4 is the cheaper output token ($15/1M). Claude Sonnet 4 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

First Claude 4 Opus generation. Baseline for opus 4 vs opus 5.

Elo 1,490$75/1M out

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4

First Sonnet 4 generation. Bridge between 3.5/3.7 and Sonnet 5.

Elo 1,455$15/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

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

Claude Opus 4: 5W (50%)Overall: Even matchupClaude Sonnet 4: 5W (50%)

← Claude Opus 4Claude Sonnet 4 →

Claude Opus 4 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,455

Coding Elo

1,502vs1,468

SWE-bench

72.5%vs62.8%

LiveBench

66.8%vs63.2%

GPQA Diamond

80.4%vs76.4%

Claude Opus 4: 5WClaude Sonnet 4: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

58 tok/svs92 tok/s

Time to first token

390 msvs220 ms

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Sonnet 4: 2W

Claude Sonnet 4 (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 Opus 4: 0WClaude Sonnet 4: 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 AdvantageEven 3–3

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 4

35 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Sonnet 4

34 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Claude Sonnet 4

$60.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+2%1,490

EloHigh is better

1,455

Code Elo

High is better

+2%1,502

Code EloHigh is better

1,468

LiveBench

High is better

+6%66.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

63.2%

SWE-bench

High is better

+15%72.5%

SWE-benchHigh is better

62.8%

GPQA

High is better

+5%80.4%

GPQAHigh is better

76.4%

TTFT

Low is better

390 ms

TTFTLow is better

220 ms+77%

Speed

High is better

58 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

92 tok/s+59%

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

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$1,650.00 / mo

In: $525.00Out: $1125.00

Claude Sonnet 4$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Claude Sonnet 4 is estimated to save $1,320.00/month ($15,840/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 4:Pick Claude Opus 4 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Sonnet 4:Pick Claude Sonnet 4 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Claude Sonnet 4:Pick Claude Sonnet 4 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4

Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 4

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

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4

Lower TTFT (220 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4	Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower TTFT (220 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4).

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4

Elo 1,490

LiveBench66.8%

SWE-bench72.5%

Speed58 tok/s

Output cost$75/1M

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4

Elo 1,455

LiveBench63.2%

SWE-bench62.8%

Speed92 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4?: Claude Opus 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,490). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4?: Claude Opus 4 leads SWE-bench at 72.5% vs 62.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Claude Sonnet 4 output tokens are $15/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4?: Claude Sonnet 4 has the lower time-to-first-token (220 ms vs 390 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Sonnet 4 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 Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Opus 4 matchups →|All Claude Sonnet 4 matchups →

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude 3 Opus (previous opus)Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (next opus)Claude Sonnet 4 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 (next sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4 Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

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

Claude Opus 4: 5W (50%)Overall: Even matchupClaude Sonnet 4: 5W (50%)

← Claude Opus 4Claude Sonnet 4 →

Claude Opus 4 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,455

Coding Elo

1,502vs1,468

SWE-bench

72.5%vs62.8%

LiveBench

66.8%vs63.2%

GPQA Diamond

80.4%vs76.4%

Claude Opus 4: 5WClaude Sonnet 4: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

58 tok/svs92 tok/s

Time to first token

390 msvs220 ms

Claude Opus 4: 0WClaude Sonnet 4: 2W

Claude Sonnet 4 (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 Opus 4: 0WClaude Sonnet 4: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4

Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 4

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

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4

Lower TTFT (220 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4	Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower TTFT (220 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4?

Claude Opus 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,490). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4?

Claude Opus 4 leads SWE-bench at 72.5% vs 62.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Claude Sonnet 4 output tokens are $15/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4 or Claude Sonnet 4?

Claude Sonnet 4 has the lower time-to-first-token (220 ms vs 390 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Sonnet 4 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 Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.