Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) vs Ring-2.6-1T
Which is better for the money: Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) by Anthropic or Ring-2.6-1T by InclusionAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) scores 4.1 points higher (20.7 vs 16.6) but costs 2.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1501 vs $576; both premium class). Pick Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Ring-2.6-1T.
| Metric | Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) | Ring-2.6-1T | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 20.7 | 16.6 | −19.8% Ring-2.6-1T is 19.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,501.22 | $575.60 | −61.7% Ring-2.6-1T is 61.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.58s | 24.04s | +11.4% Ring-2.6-1T is 11.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Ring-2.6-1T vs Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning): 19.8% less intelligence, 61.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 11.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Ring-2.6-1T is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning)Ring-2.6-1TToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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