Claude Opus 4vsClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Anthropic vs Anthropic — Side-by-side model comparison
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Metric | Claude Opus 4 | Claude 3.5 Sonnet |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Arena Rank | #1 | #8 |
| Context Window | 200K | 200K |
| Input Pricing | $5.00/1M tokens | $3.00/1M tokens |
| Output Pricing | $25.00/1M tokens | $15.00/1M tokens |
| Parameters | Undisclosed | Undisclosed |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Best For | Complex reasoning, coding, agentic tasks | Coding, analysis, writing, vision |
| Release Date | May 22, 2025 | Oct 22, 2024 |
Claude Opus 4
Claude Opus 4 is Anthropic's most powerful AI model, holding the #1 position on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard. It represents a breakthrough in extended thinking and agentic capabilities, able to work autonomously on complex multi-step tasks for hours. With a 200K token context window, it excels at analyzing entire codebases, lengthy legal documents, and research papers in a single pass. The model demonstrates exceptional performance in coding (setting new benchmarks on SWE-bench), advanced reasoning, and nuanced writing tasks. Its agentic capabilities allow it to use tools, navigate computers, and execute multi-step workflows with minimal human oversight. Opus 4 is the preferred choice for enterprises requiring the highest quality output on mission-critical tasks where accuracy and depth matter more than speed or cost.
View Anthropic profile →Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was Anthropic's previous generation balanced model that set new industry benchmarks when released. It demonstrated that mid-tier models could compete with and even surpass flagship models from competitors on coding, reasoning, and analysis tasks. The model featured a 200K token context window and introduced Anthropic's Artifacts feature for interactive code execution. Claude 3.5 Sonnet became one of the most popular models for professional developers and enterprises, known for its excellent code generation, careful instruction following, and reduced hallucination rates. While now succeeded by Claude Sonnet 4, it remains widely deployed in production systems and continues to offer strong performance at its price point. It was instrumental in establishing Anthropic as a serious competitor to OpenAI.
View Anthropic profile →Key Differences: Claude Opus 4 vs Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude Opus 4 ranks higher in arena benchmarks (#1) indicating stronger overall performance.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is 1.7x cheaper on average, making it the better choice for high-volume applications.
When to use Claude Opus 4
- +You need the highest quality output based on arena rankings
- +Quality matters more than cost
- +Your use case involves complex reasoning, coding, agentic tasks
When to use Claude 3.5 Sonnet
- +Budget is a concern and you need cost efficiency
- +Your use case involves coding, analysis, writing, vision
Cost Analysis
At current pricing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is 1.7x more affordable than Claude Opus 4. For a typical enterprise workload processing 100M tokens per month:
Claude Opus 4 monthly cost
$1,500
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet monthly cost
$900
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
The Verdict
Claude 3.5 Sonnet wins our head-to-head comparison with 2 out of 5 category wins. It's the stronger choice for coding, analysis, writing, vision, though Claude Opus 4 holds an edge in complex reasoning, coding, agentic tasks.
Last compared: April 2026 · Data sourced from public benchmarks and official pricing pages