Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) vs Claude Opus 4.6 (Max)

Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) vs Claude Opus 4.6 (Max). A reliable intelligence-versus-cost verdict requires both models' intelligence scores and benchmark-run costs. Missing data is not a performance verdict.

AnthropicClaude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning)Off the frontier
Intelligence
20.70
Total cost
$1501
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.6 (Max)Not ranked · benchmark data missing
Intelligence
31.90
Total cost
-
Verdict

Comparison incomplete

A reliable intelligence-versus-cost verdict requires both models' intelligence scores and benchmark-run costs. Missing data is not a performance verdict.

MetricClaude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning)Claude Opus 4.6 (Max)Difference
Intelligence (higher is better)20.731.9+54.1% Claude Opus 4.6 (Max) is 54.1% more intelligent
Total AA cost (lower is better)$1,501.22Not reported— not comparable
End-to-end time (lower is better)20.84s28.81s+38.2% Claude Opus 4.6 (Max) is 38.2% slower
Price per 1M tokens (in / out)$3.00 / $15.0$5.00 / $25.0
Input modalitiesText, ImageText, Image
Open this matchup in the interactive pickerClaude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning): what beats itClaude Opus 4.6 (Max): what beats it
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Agents: Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-4-5-sonnet-thinking/claude-opus-4-6-adaptive · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-4-5-sonnet-thinking/claude-opus-4-6-adaptive?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill