Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max) vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max) by Anthropic or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? 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 Sonnet 4.6 (Max) scores 6.0 points higher (30.1 vs 24.1) but costs 9.8× as much to run the benchmark ($4925 vs $502; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max) when you need intelligence above 24.1, and Solar Mini 4 when 24.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max) | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 24.1 | −19.9% Solar Mini 4 is 19.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,924.80 | $502.02 | −89.8% Solar Mini 4 is 89.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 78.98s | 25.33s | −67.9% Solar Mini 4 is 67.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max): 19.9% less intelligence, 89.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 67.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max)Solar Mini 4Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-4-6-adaptive/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-4-6-adaptive/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill