Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4
Side-by-side benchmark comparison across coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing.
Claude Sonnet 4 by Anthropic wins on 15 of 15 benchmarks against Claude 3 Opus by Anthropic, which leads on 0. This head-to-head comparison covers coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing metrics from our benchmark data.
Category-by-Category Breakdown
General Intelligence: In general intelligence, Claude Sonnet 4 scores 1365 on Chatbot Arena ELO compared to Claude 3 Opus's 1240, while Claude Sonnet 4 scores 81.0% on MMLU-Pro compared to Claude 3 Opus's 68.0%, while Claude Sonnet 4 scores 87.0% on IFEval compared to Claude 3 Opus's 82.0%.
Coding: In coding, Claude Sonnet 4 scores 88.0% on HumanEval+ compared to Claude 3 Opus's 78.0%, while Claude Sonnet 4 scores 72.7% on SWE-bench Verified compared to Claude 3 Opus's 22.0%, while Claude Sonnet 4 scores 58.0% on LiveCodeBench compared to Claude 3 Opus's 32.0%.
Math: In math, Claude Sonnet 4 scores 85.0% on MATH compared to Claude 3 Opus's 68.0%, while Claude Sonnet 4 scores 94.5% on GSM8K compared to Claude 3 Opus's 88.0%.
Reasoning: In reasoning, Claude Sonnet 4 scores 75.4% on GPQA Diamond compared to Claude 3 Opus's 59.4%, while Claude Sonnet 4 scores 42.0% on ARC-AGI compared to Claude 3 Opus's 8.0%.
Context: In context, Claude Sonnet 4 scores 1.0M on Context Length compared to Claude 3 Opus's 200K.
Pricing Comparison
Claude 3 Opus costs $15.0/1M input tokens and $75.0/1M output tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.0/1M input and $15.0/1M output. Claude Sonnet 4 is the more affordable option for API usage.
Speed Comparison
Claude 3 Opus generates output at 25 tok/s compared to Claude Sonnet 4's 75 tok/s, and the time to first token is 800 ms for Claude 3 Opus versus 400 ms for Claude Sonnet 4. Claude Sonnet 4 delivers faster throughput.
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4 leads across the board in coding, general intelligence, math, affordability, speed, making it the stronger overall choice in this comparison.
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Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4 — FAQ
Which is better, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4?
Claude Sonnet 4 wins on more benchmarks overall (15 vs 0). However, the best choice depends on your specific needs — each model excels in different areas.
How does Claude 3 Opus compare to Claude Sonnet 4 for coding?
Claude Sonnet 4 is better for coding, scoring 72.7% on SWE-bench Verified compared to 22.0%. SWE-bench tests real-world software engineering by resolving actual GitHub issues.
Is Claude 3 Opus cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4?
Yes, Claude Sonnet 4 is cheaper. Claude 3 Opus costs $15.0/1M input and $75.0/1M output tokens. Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.0/1M input and $15.0/1M output tokens.
Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4?
Claude Sonnet 4 is faster, generating output at 75 tok/s compared to 25 tok/s. Faster output speed means shorter wait times for API responses.
What benchmarks does the Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4 comparison cover?
This comparison covers 15 benchmarks including Chatbot Arena ELO, MMLU-Pro, HumanEval+, IFEval, MATH, GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench Verified, Output Speed, and more. Metrics span general intelligence, coding, math, reasoning, speed, and cost categories.