Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-5.6 Terra benchmark

Name: Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-5.6 Terra AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Sonnet 4 (Anthropic) and GPT-5.6 Terra (OpenAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, GPT-5.6 Terra is ahead by 93 points (1,548 vs 1,455; seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, GPT-5.6 Terra resolves 70.4% versus 62.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). GPT-5.6 Terra streams faster (128 tok/s) while GPT-5.6 Terra is the cheaper output token ($6/1M). GPT-5.6 Terra has the larger context window (1.1M 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.

Share Analysis:

WhatsApp Telegram X / Post LinkedIn Reddit

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4

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

Elo 1,455$15/1M out

OpenAI

GPT-5.6 Terra

OpenAI 5.6 mid tier. Official API $2/$12 per 1M after the Jul 30 2026 price cut.

Elo 1,548$6/1M out

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

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 Sonnet 4 (0)vsGPT-5.6 Terra (10)

Claude Sonnet 4: 0W (0%)Overall: GPT-5.6 TerraGPT-5.6 Terra: 10W (100%)

← Claude Sonnet 4GPT-5.6 Terra →

GPT-5.6 Terra (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,455vs1,548

Coding Elo

1,468vs1,542

SWE-bench

62.8%vs70.4%

LiveBench

63.2%vs69.1%

GPQA Diamond

76.4%vs82%

Claude Sonnet 4: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 5W

GPT-5.6 Terra (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

92 tok/svs128 tok/s

Time to first token

220 msvs160 ms

Claude Sonnet 4: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 2W

GPT-5.6 Terra (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$6/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$1/1M

Context window

1Mvs1.1M

Claude Sonnet 4: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 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 AdvantageGPT-5.6 Terra 6/6

Preference Elo

GPT-5.6 Terra

93 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

GPT-5.6 Terra

36 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

GPT-5.6 Terra

$9.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,455

EloHigh is better

1,548+6%

Code Elo

High is better

1,468

Code EloHigh is better

1,542+5%

LiveBench

High is better

63.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.1%+9%

SWE-bench

High is better

62.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

70.4%+12%

GPQA

High is better

76.4%

GPQAHigh is better

82%+7%

TTFT

Low is better

220 ms

TTFTLow is better

160 ms+38%

Speed

High is better

92 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

128 tok/s+39%

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$1/1M+200%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$6/1M+150%

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

1.1M+5%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 62% with GPT-5.6 Terra

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$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

GPT-5.6 Terra$125.00 / mo

In: $35.00Out: $90.00

Estimated Cost Delta

GPT-5.6 Terra is estimated to save $205.00/month ($2,460/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
GPT-5.6 Terra:Pick GPT-5.6 Terra when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
GPT-5.6 Terra:Pick GPT-5.6 Terra when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
GPT-5.6 Terra:Pick GPT-5.6 Terra for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGPT-5.6 Terra

Higher SWE-bench (70.4%).

High-volume chatGPT-5.6 Terra

Lower output list price ($6/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGPT-5.6 Terra

Lower TTFT (160 ms).

Long-document RAGGPT-5.6 Terra

Larger window (1.1M).

Screenshots / visionGPT-5.6 Terra

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (GPT-5.6 Terra).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	GPT-5.6 Terra	Higher SWE-bench (70.4%).
High-volume chat	GPT-5.6 Terra	Lower output list price ($6/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	GPT-5.6 Terra	Lower TTFT (160 ms).
Long-document RAG	GPT-5.6 Terra	Larger window (1.1M).
Screenshots / vision	GPT-5.6 Terra	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (GPT-5.6 Terra).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

priceJul 30, 2026

GPT-5.6 Terra after the Jul 30 cut: $2/$12 mid-tier

Terra is OpenAI’s Sonnet-class invoice. Use it when Sol is too expensive and Luna is too small.

Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

0 total votes

Community Discussions (0)

No comments posted on this matchup yet. Be the first to share an evaluation note!

Share card

The real PNG is generated at /compare/claude-sonnet-4-vs-gpt-5-6-terra/opengraph-image for crawlers.

PNG

CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4

Elo 1,455

LiveBench63.2%

SWE-bench62.8%

Speed92 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

OpenAI

GPT-5.6 Terra

Elo 1,548

LiveBench69.1%

SWE-bench70.4%

Speed128 tok/s

Output cost$6/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-5.6 Terra?: GPT-5.6 Terra has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,548). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-5.6 Terra?: GPT-5.6 Terra leads SWE-bench at 70.4% vs 62.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: GPT-5.6 Terra output tokens are $6/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-5.6 Terra?: GPT-5.6 Terra has the lower time-to-first-token (160 ms vs 220 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: GPT-5.6 Terra accepts 1.1M 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 Sonnet 4 and GPT-5.6 Terra Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 4 matchups →|All GPT-5.6 Terra matchups →

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 GPT-5.6 Terra GPT-4.5 Orion vs GPT-5.6 Terra Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra GPT-5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra

Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-5.6 Terra benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4 (0)vsGPT-5.6 Terra (10)

Claude Sonnet 4: 0W (0%)Overall: GPT-5.6 TerraGPT-5.6 Terra: 10W (100%)

← Claude Sonnet 4GPT-5.6 Terra →

GPT-5.6 Terra (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,455vs1,548

Coding Elo

1,468vs1,542

SWE-bench

62.8%vs70.4%

LiveBench

63.2%vs69.1%

GPQA Diamond

76.4%vs82%

Claude Sonnet 4: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 5W

GPT-5.6 Terra (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

92 tok/svs128 tok/s

Time to first token

220 msvs160 ms

Claude Sonnet 4: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 2W

GPT-5.6 Terra (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$6/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$1/1M

Context window

1Mvs1.1M

Claude Sonnet 4: 0WGPT-5.6 Terra: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGPT-5.6 Terra

Higher SWE-bench (70.4%).

High-volume chatGPT-5.6 Terra

Lower output list price ($6/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGPT-5.6 Terra

Lower TTFT (160 ms).

Long-document RAGGPT-5.6 Terra

Larger window (1.1M).

Screenshots / visionGPT-5.6 Terra

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (GPT-5.6 Terra).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	GPT-5.6 Terra	Higher SWE-bench (70.4%).
High-volume chat	GPT-5.6 Terra	Lower output list price ($6/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	GPT-5.6 Terra	Lower TTFT (160 ms).
Long-document RAG	GPT-5.6 Terra	Larger window (1.1M).
Screenshots / vision	GPT-5.6 Terra	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (GPT-5.6 Terra).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,548). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra leads SWE-bench at 70.4% vs 62.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

GPT-5.6 Terra output tokens are $6/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra has the lower time-to-first-token (160 ms vs 220 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

GPT-5.6 Terra accepts 1.1M 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 Sonnet 4 and GPT-5.6 Terra 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

GPT-5.6 Terra

GPT-5.6 Terra

GPT-5.6 Terra

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

GPT-5.6 Terra after the Jul 30 cut: $2/$12 mid-tier

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4

GPT-5.6 Terra

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

GPT-5.6 Terra

GPT-5.6 Terra

GPT-5.6 Terra

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

GPT-5.6 Terra after the Jul 30 cut: $2/$12 mid-tier

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4

GPT-5.6 Terra

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons