Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) 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 5 (Xhigh) scores 10.3 points higher (34.4 vs 24.1) but costs 6.5× as much to run the benchmark ($3255 vs $502; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 24.1, and Solar Mini 4 when 24.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.4 | 24.1 | −29.9% Solar Mini 4 is 29.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,255.40 | $502.02 | −84.6% Solar Mini 4 is 84.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.07s | 25.33s | +20.2% Solar Mini 4 is 20.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh): 29.9% less intelligence, 84.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 20.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- 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 5 (Xhigh)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-5-xhigh/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-xhigh/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill