Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5: which should I use?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs 1.5× more per blended million tokens than Claude Sonnet 5. Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger context window (500,000 tokens). Default to Claude Sonnet 5 unless you specifically need Claude Sonnet 4.6's edge.
Price, speed, and task evidence
Task verdict
Best-fit task signals from the published model strengths; this is not a substitute for a controlled benchmark.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Enterprise workloads that need Opus-adjacent quality at Sonnet pricing. | Production workloads that need near-Opus quality with better speed and cost. |
| Reasoning mode | Available | Available |
Effective workload cost
Modeled for Coding Agent: 20,000 input + 2,000 output tokens per task, 1 turn. This is a workload model, not a provider quote.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Coding Agent / task | $0.09 (modeled) | $0.06 (modeled) (winner) |
| Input / output rate | $3.00 / $15.00 per M | $2.00 / $10.00 per M |
Speed
Only non-estimated benchmark results are shown as measured.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Measured throughput | 76 tokens/s | Unavailable |
| Time to first token | 360 ms | Unavailable |
API compatibility
Provider-level wire-format and SDK facts; model-specific parameter differences may still apply.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI SDK | Not drop-in | Not drop-in |
| Request shape | Messages API — system prompt is a top-level field, not a message role, and max_tokens is required on every call. | Messages API — system prompt is a top-level field, not a message role, and max_tokens is required on every call. |
| Streaming | SSE (Anthropic content-block events) | SSE (Anthropic content-block events) |
Privacy and retention
Provider policy and residency facts from the verified provider registry. A missing retention policy is not treated as a guarantee.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider says API data trains models | No | No |
| Published retention period | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| Data residency | Unavailable | Unavailable |
Migration effort
Direction is from each displayed model to the other. Effort is derived from provider compatibility and published parameter maps.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Move Claude Sonnet 4.6 → Claude Sonnet 5 | drop-in; 0 breaking parameter differences | Target: Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Move Claude Sonnet 5 → Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Source: Claude Sonnet 5 | drop-in; 0 breaking parameter differences |
| Why | Same provider; only the model identifier changes. | Same provider; only the model identifier changes. |
Spec comparison
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $3.00/M | $2.00/M ✓ |
| Price (output) | $15.00/M | $10.00/M ✓ |
| Blended price | $6.00/M | $4.00/M ✓ |
| Context window | 300,000 tokens | 500,000 tokens ✓ |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Released | 2026-03 | 2026-06 |
| Speed | 76 t/s | Not measured |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $6.00 | $4.00 | $2.00 (1.5×) |
| 10,000,000 | $60.00 | $40.00 | $20.00 (1.5×) |
| 100,000,000 | $600.00 | $400.00 | $200.00 (1.5×) |
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 if…
- ✓Best intelligence-per-dollar in the Claude lineup
- ✓Fast enough for interactive coding agents
- ✓Reliable structured output
- ✓Enterprise workloads that need Opus-adjacent quality at Sonnet pricing.
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 if…
- ✓Frontier intelligence at Sonnet economics
- ✓Fast interactive coding performance
- ✓Reliable structured output and extended thinking
- ✓Production workloads that need near-Opus quality with better speed and cost.
Run this exact matchup right now
Send the same prompt to Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5 side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 FreeFAQ
Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper, at $4.00 per million blended tokens vs $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger context window: 500,000 tokens vs 300,000.
Can Claude Sonnet 4.6 replace Claude Sonnet 5 for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Best intelligence-per-dollar in the Claude lineup (Claude Sonnet 4.6) vs Frontier intelligence at Sonnet economics (Claude Sonnet 5) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.
Neither of these? See Claude Sonnet 4.6 alternatives or Claude Sonnet 5 alternatives.
Related
Pricing verified 2026-04-06. Specs verified 2026-08-14.