Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Yi-Lightning benchmark

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

This page compares Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) and Yi-Lightning (01.AI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is ahead by 49 points (1,524 vs 1,475; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 resolves 70.1% versus 63.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Yi-Lightning streams faster (130 tok/s) while Yi-Lightning is the cheaper output token ($0.14/1M). 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 Sonnet 4.5

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

Elo 1,524$15/1M out

01.AI

Yi-Lightning

01.AI ultra-fast reasoning model delivering top LiveBench efficiency.

Elo 1,475$0.14/1M 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 Sonnet 4.5 (6)vsYi-Lightning (4)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 6W (60%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4.5Yi-Lightning: 4W (40%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5Yi-Lightning →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,524vs1,475

Coding Elo

1,531vs1,480

SWE-bench

70.1%vs63.4%

LiveBench

67.4%vs65%

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs78%

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 5WYi-Lightning: 0W

Yi-Lightning (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs130 tok/s

Time to first token

240 msvs150 ms

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WYi-Lightning: 2W

Yi-Lightning (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.14/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.14/1M

Context window

1Mvs16k

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 1WYi-Lightning: 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 Sonnet 4.5 4/6

Preference Elo

Claude Sonnet 4.5

49 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Yi-Lightning

42 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Yi-Lightning

$14.86/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+3%1,524

EloHigh is better

1,475

Code Elo

High is better

+3%1,531

Code EloHigh is better

1,480

LiveBench

High is better

+4%67.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

65%

SWE-bench

High is better

+11%70.1%

SWE-benchHigh is better

63.4%

GPQA

High is better

+3%80.2%

GPQAHigh is better

78%

TTFT

Low is better

240 ms

TTFTLow is better

150 ms+60%

Speed

High is better

88 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

130 tok/s+48%

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$0.14/1M+2043%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$0.14/1M+10614%

Context

High is better

+6004%1M

ContextHigh is better

16k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 98% with Yi-Lightning

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

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

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

Claude Sonnet 4.5$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Yi-Lightning$7.00 / mo

In: $4.90Out: $2.10

Estimated Cost Delta

Yi-Lightning is estimated to save $323.00/month ($3,876/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
Yi-Lightning:Pick Yi-Lightning when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Yi-Lightning:Pick Yi-Lightning when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4.5

Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).

High-volume chatYi-Lightning

Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIYi-Lightning

Lower TTFT (150 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4.5

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).
High-volume chat	Yi-Lightning	Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Yi-Lightning	Lower TTFT (150 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

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 Sonnet 4.5

Elo 1,524

LiveBench67.4%

SWE-bench70.1%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

01.AI

Yi-Lightning

Elo 1,475

LiveBench65%

SWE-bench63.4%

Speed130 tok/s

Output cost$0.14/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Yi-Lightning?: 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 Sonnet 4.5 or Yi-Lightning?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads SWE-bench at 70.1% vs 63.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Yi-Lightning output tokens are $0.14/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Yi-Lightning?: Yi-Lightning has the lower time-to-first-token (150 ms vs 240 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 16k.
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 Sonnet 4.5 and Yi-Lightning Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 4.5 matchups →|All Yi-Lightning matchups →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 (next sonnet)Yi-Lightning vs Yi-Large (previous other)Yi-Lightning vs Ernie 4.5 Turbo (next other)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Yi-Lightning benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (6)vsYi-Lightning (4)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 6W (60%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4.5Yi-Lightning: 4W (40%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5Yi-Lightning →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,524vs1,475

Coding Elo

1,531vs1,480

SWE-bench

70.1%vs63.4%

LiveBench

67.4%vs65%

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs78%

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 5WYi-Lightning: 0W

Yi-Lightning (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs130 tok/s

Time to first token

240 msvs150 ms

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WYi-Lightning: 2W

Yi-Lightning (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.14/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.14/1M

Context window

1Mvs16k

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 1WYi-Lightning: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4.5

Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).

High-volume chatYi-Lightning

Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIYi-Lightning

Lower TTFT (150 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4.5

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Higher SWE-bench (70.1%).
High-volume chat	Yi-Lightning	Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Yi-Lightning	Lower TTFT (150 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Yi-Lightning?

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 Sonnet 4.5 or Yi-Lightning?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads SWE-bench at 70.1% vs 63.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Yi-Lightning output tokens are $0.14/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Yi-Lightning?

Yi-Lightning has the lower time-to-first-token (150 ms vs 240 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 16k.

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 Sonnet 4.5 and Yi-Lightning 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

Yi-Lightning

Yi-Lightning

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 Sonnet 4.5

Yi-Lightning

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

Yi-Lightning

Yi-Lightning

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 Sonnet 4.5

Yi-Lightning

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons