Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Side-by-side benchmark comparison across coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing.
Claude Opus 4.8 by Anthropic and Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic are evenly matched across 11 benchmarks. 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 Opus 4.8 scores 42 on AA Intelligence Index compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 30.5.
Coding: In coding, Claude Opus 4.8 scores 74.3 on AA Coding Index compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 63, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 1274 on Design Arena ELO compared to Claude Opus 4.8's 1262, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 1297 on Website Arena ELO compared to Claude Opus 4.8's 1267.
Reasoning: In reasoning, Claude Opus 4.8 scores 89.6% on GPQA Diamond compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 54.3%, while Claude Opus 4.8 scores 42.6 on AA Agentic Index compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 33.1, while Claude Opus 4.8 scores 76.2% on τ²-Bench Airline compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 75.3%.
Context: In context, both score 1.0M on Context Length.
Pricing Comparison
Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.0/1M input tokens and $25.0/1M output tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.0/1M input and $15.0/1M output. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the more affordable option for API usage.
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads across the board in affordability, making it the stronger overall choice in this comparison.
View Individual Model Pages
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 — FAQ
Which is better, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 are evenly matched across benchmarks. The best choice depends on your specific priorities such as coding ability, speed, or pricing.
How does Claude Opus 4.8 compare to Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding?
SWE-bench Verified data is not available for both models. Check the detailed comparison charts above for other coding-related metrics.
Is Claude Opus 4.8 cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Yes, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper. Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.0/1M input and $25.0/1M output tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.0/1M input and $15.0/1M output tokens.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Output speed data is not available for both models. Check the speed section of the comparison above for available performance data.
What benchmarks does the Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 comparison cover?
This comparison covers 11 benchmarks including GPQA Diamond, Input Cost, Output Cost, Context Length, AA Intelligence Index, AA Coding Index, AA Agentic Index, Cached Input Cost, and more. Metrics span general intelligence, coding, math, reasoning, speed, and cost categories.