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Head-to-head comparison

Claude Opus 4.5 vs. Claude Sonnet 4.5

Compare published benchmark results from matching versions and cohorts, API pricing, and technical specifications. Any documented test setup differences remain visible.

shared result series
8
distinct benchmarks
8
latest retrieval
2026-09-02

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Specifications

General specifications

Release date, availability, context window, architecture, and published parameter counts at a glance. Undisclosed details remain marked as unavailable.

Specifications for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5
AttributeClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5
ProviderAnthropicAnthropic
ReleasedNov 2025Sep 2025
AvailabilityActiveActive
Model typeProprietaryProprietary
ParametersNot publishedNot published
ArchitectureNot publishedNot published
Context window200,000 tokens200,000 tokens
Knowledge cutoffMarch 2025January 2025
Technical sourcesModel, ContextModel, Context

Pricing

API pricing compared

The table compares official standard API rates per 1M tokens, including published cache pricing. Batch, fast, priority, regional surcharges, tool calls, and cloud platform pricing are excluded.

API pricing for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5
Price typeClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5
API input$5$3
API output$25$15
Cache read$0.5$0.3
Cache write (5 min.)$6.25$3.75
Cache write (1 hr.)$10$6
Price verified07/30/2026 Source07/30/2026 Source
Claude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5
API inputUSD per 1M tokens, base tier
Claude Opus 4.5$5
Claude Sonnet 4.5Lower price$3
API outputUSD per 1M tokens, base tier
Claude Opus 4.5$25
Claude Sonnet 4.5Lower price$15
Cache readUSD per 1M tokens, base tier
Claude Opus 4.5$0.5
Claude Sonnet 4.5Lower price$0.3

Key to the marks:better valuebetter, but not conclusivetie

Pricing by provider

Direct developer pricing and provider endpoint tariffs routed through OpenRouter are listed separately. Prices are in USD per 1M tokens. Context-dependent direct tiers plus regional, Flex, Priority, and other OpenRouter tariffs remain individually identifiable.

Provider pricing for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5
ModelProviderPurchase route and tariffInput per 1M tokensOutput per 1M tokensSource
Claude Opus 4.5AnthropicDirect from developerStandard APILowest listed price: $5Lowest listed price: $25Source07/30/2026
Amazon BedrockVia OpenRouteramazon-bedrockLowest listed price: $5Lowest listed price: $25Source09/12/2026
Amazon BedrockVia OpenRouteramazon-bedrock/eu-west-1$5.5$27.5Source09/12/2026
AnthropicVia OpenRouteranthropicLowest listed price: $5Lowest listed price: $25Source09/12/2026
AzureVia OpenRouterazure/globalLowest listed price: $5Lowest listed price: $25Source09/12/2026
Claude Platform on AWSVia OpenRouterclaude-on-awsLowest listed price: $5Lowest listed price: $25Source09/12/2026
GoogleVia OpenRoutergoogle-vertex/globalLowest listed price: $5Lowest listed price: $25Source09/12/2026
Claude Sonnet 4.5AnthropicDirect from developerStandard APILowest listed price: $3Lowest listed price: $15Source07/30/2026
Amazon BedrockVia OpenRouteramazon-bedrockLowest listed price: $3Lowest listed price: $15Source09/12/2026
Amazon BedrockVia OpenRouteramazon-bedrock/eu-west-1$3.3$16.5Source09/12/2026
AnthropicVia OpenRouteranthropicLowest listed price: $3Lowest listed price: $15Source09/12/2026
AzureVia OpenRouterazure/globalLowest listed price: $3Lowest listed price: $15Source09/12/2026
Claude Platform on AWSVia OpenRouterclaude-on-awsLowest listed price: $3Lowest listed price: $15Source09/12/2026
GoogleVia OpenRoutergoogle-vertex/globalLowest listed price: $3Lowest listed price: $15Source09/12/2026
GoogleVia OpenRoutergoogle-vertex/us-east5$3.3$16.5Source09/12/2026

Performance

Shared benchmarks

Only published results with the same benchmark version, task, metric, and comparison cohort are paired. Different reasoning levels, agents, harnesses, or output limits appear directly in the table.

Capability profile from matched benchmarks

Each axis averages directly matched benchmark families. A value of 100 means the stronger value within this pair, not a universal quality score.

255075100CodingReasoningAgentic tasksMultimodalProductivityEducation
Claude Opus 4.5
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Coding: 100 / 80 (1 benchmark family)
Reasoning: 100 / 73.7 (1 benchmark family)
Agentic tasks: 100 / 94.5 (1 benchmark family)
Multimodal: 95.2 / 100 (1 benchmark family)
Productivity: 100 / 93.8 (1 benchmark family)
Education: 100 / 95.7 (1 benchmark family)

6 matched rows from 6 benchmark families were considered. The radar shows 6 of 6 comparable categories.

Claude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5
BFCL v4Overall. Higher is better. No documented setup difference
Claude Opus 4.5Winner77.47 %
Claude Sonnet 4.573.24 %
CORE-Bench HardAutomatic validation. Higher is better. No documented setup difference
Claude Opus 4.5Winner77.78 %
Claude Sonnet 4.562.22 %
MultiChallengeOverall. Higher is better. No documented setup difference
Claude Opus 4.5Winner58.97% ± 0.42
Claude Sonnet 4.555.32% ± 1.47
MultiNRCOverall. Higher is better. No documented setup difference
Claude Opus 4.5Winner48.63% ± 3.02
Claude Sonnet 4.535.83% ± 2.89
PRBench FinanceOverall. Higher is better. Test setup not documented as identical
Claude Opus 4.5Higher measured value46.16% ± 0.27
Claude Sonnet 4.543.79% ± 0.4
PRBench LegalOverall. Higher is better. Test setup not documented as identical
Claude Opus 4.5Higher measured value44.21% ± 0.34
Claude Sonnet 4.540.84% ± 0.4
TutorBenchOverall. Higher is better. No documented setup difference
Claude Opus 4.5Winner51.2% ± 0.99
Claude Sonnet 4.549% ± 1.01
VISTAOverall. Higher is better. No documented setup difference
Claude Opus 4.546.43% ± 0.03
Claude Sonnet 4.5Winner48.75% ± 1.67

Key to the marks:better valuebetter, but not conclusivetie

Benchmark scores for Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5
Benchmark and taskClaude Opus 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5Source
BFCL v4Overall
Test details
No documented difference in the test setupVersion: v4, commit f7cf735Metric: unweighted overall accuracyScoring: Higher is betterClaude Opus 4.5: Snapshot: claude-opus-4-5-20251101-fc
Claude Sonnet 4.5: Snapshot: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929-fc
Unweighted overall score across agentic, multi-turn, and single-turn function-calling tests.
Winner77.47 %
73.24 %
Berkeley BFCL
Source details
Data as of: 04/12/2026
CORE-Bench HardAutomatic validation
Test details
No documented difference in the test setupVersion: 45-paper public hard setMetric: automatic accuracyScoring: Higher is betterSettings: Agent: Claude Code, Harness: Claude CodeClaude Code on 45 public paper reproductions. Total cost is divided by 45.
Winner77.78 %
62.22 %
Princeton HAL
Source details
Data as of: 08/06/2026
MultiChallengeOverall
Test details
No documented difference in the test setupVersion: four multi-turn challenge typesMetric: rubric pass rateScoring: Higher is betterSettings: Reasoning: thinking, Attempts: pass@1Multi-turn conversations with binary task-specific rubrics.
Winner58.97% ± 0.42
95% confidence interval: ±0.42
55.32% ± 1.47
95% confidence interval: ±1.47
Scale AI
Source details
Data as of: 08/26/2026
MultiNRCOverall
Test details
No documented difference in the test setupVersion: French, Spanish, and Chinese releaseMetric: accuracyScoring: Higher is betterSettings: Reasoning: thinking, Attempts: pass@1Native, non-translated reasoning tasks with automatic evaluation.
Winner48.63% ± 3.02
95% confidence interval: ±3.02
35.83% ± 2.89
95% confidence interval: ±2.89
Scale AI
Source details
Data as of: 08/26/2026
PRBench FinanceOverall
Test details
Test setup not documented as identicalNo direct winnerVersion: full finance setMetric: weighted rubric scoreScoring: Higher is betterClaude Opus 4.5: Reasoning: thinking, Attempts: pass@1
Claude Sonnet 4.5: Attempts: pass@1
600 finance tasks with task-specific rubrics and o4-mini as judge.
Higher measured value46.16% ± 0.27
95% confidence interval: ±0.27
43.79% ± 0.4
95% confidence interval: ±0.4
Scale AI
Source details
Data as of: 08/26/2026
PRBench LegalOverall
Test details
Test setup not documented as identicalNo direct winnerVersion: full legal setMetric: weighted rubric scoreScoring: Higher is betterClaude Opus 4.5: Reasoning: thinking, Attempts: pass@1
Claude Sonnet 4.5: Attempts: pass@1
500 legal tasks with task-specific rubrics and o4-mini as judge.
Higher measured value44.21% ± 0.34
95% confidence interval: ±0.34
40.84% ± 0.4
95% confidence interval: ±0.4
Scale AI
Source details
Data as of: 08/26/2026
TutorBenchOverall
Test details
No documented difference in the test setupVersion: 1,490-task releaseMetric: weighted rubric scoreScoring: Higher is betterSettings: Reasoning: thinking, Attempts: pass@11,490 tasks with weighted rubrics and Claude 4 Sonnet as judge.
Winner51.2% ± 0.99
95% confidence interval: ±0.99
49% ± 1.01
95% confidence interval: ±1.01
Scale AI
Source details
Data as of: 08/26/2026
VISTAOverall
Test details
No documented difference in the test setupVersion: 758 private prompt-image pairsMetric: rubric scoreScoring: Higher is betterSettings: Reasoning: thinking, Attempts: pass@1758 single-turn image-text tasks with structured yes-no rubrics.
46.43% ± 0.03
95% confidence interval: ±0.03
Winner48.75% ± 1.67
95% confidence interval: ±1.67
Scale AI
Source details
Data as of: 08/26/2026

Key to the marks:better valuebetter, but not conclusivetie

Our model tests

Community tests you can inspect

Compare how the models respond to the same prompt. Each test shows the first attempt, with no subsequent fixes to the generated code. These results do not contribute to an overall score.

Pelican on a bicycle

A community classic for free-form SVG drawing.

Claude Opus 4.5

Not tested yet

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Not tested yet

Prompt and test conditions

Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle

Token limit including reasoning: 8,192 tokens

Task origin (Simon Willison)

How to read this comparison

Winning one benchmark is not an overall verdict

Your workload, budget, and required context length matter most. A coding benchmark says little about visual understanding or agent performance.

The standard price table uses direct developer rates. The provider comparison labels OpenRouter endpoints, regions, and special tariffs separately.

Every result links to its measurement source and retrieval date. Labels distinguish vendor reports, official benchmark leaderboards, and independent evaluations. Disputed or archived results are excluded.

More matchups

Compare Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 with other leading models using the same data and benchmark logic.

View the complete LLM comparison