Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 5 is from Anthropic, released June 30, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is from Anthropic, released February 15, 2026.
- LMArena Elo1462 vs 1472. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is 0.7% ahead on LMArena Elo.
- Input per 1M$2 vs $3. Claude Sonnet 5 costs 33% less per million input tokens.
- Output per 1M$10 vs $15. Claude Sonnet 5 costs 33% less per million output tokens.
- Context window1M vs 1M. Both hold 1M tokens of context.
Prices are the vendors’ published API rates; Elo is LMArena’s text board. Each figure is dated on its model page.
Interactive Comparison
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$2 / $10 per 1M tokens | $3 / $15 per 1M tokens | |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | Jun 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| Status | GA | Available (legacy) |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Blended $/1M tokensinput × 0.75 + output × 0.25 | $4.000 / 1M tokens | $6.000 / 1M tokens |
| Input price | $2.000 / 1M tokens | $3.000 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $10.000 / 1M tokens | $15.000 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.20 / 1M tokens (cache hit) | $0.30 / 1M tokens (cache hit) |
| Batch discount | 50% off input/output (Batch API) | 50% off input/output (Batch API) |
| Free tier | Small trial credit for new accounts, no ongoing free tier | Small trial credit for new accounts, no ongoing free tier |
| Capacity | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | 128k tokens | 128k tokens |
| Long-context surcharge | None (full 1M window at standard pricing) | None (full 1M window at standard pricing) |
| Capability | ||
| Vision in | Yes | Yes |
| Audio in | No | No |
| Function calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes |
| Extended reasoning | No (adaptive thinking instead) | Yes (deprecated) |
| Web search | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | Yes |
| Access | ||
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Chat app | Yes | Yes |
| Cloud marketplaces | AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry | AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry |
| Fine-tuning | No | No |
| Measured quality | ||
| LMArena Elo | 1462 (checked Oct 2026) | 1472 (checked Oct 2026) |
| LMArena rank | Rank 57 | Rank 43 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 75 |
| Elo per dollarLMArena Elo ÷ blended $/1M tokens | 366 | 245 |
