Claude 4.6 Sonnet vs Claude 4.5 Sonnet
Compare Claude 4.6 Sonnet and Claude 4.5 Sonnet. Build AI products powered by either model on Appaca.
Model Comparison
| Feature | Claude 4.6 Sonnet | Claude 4.5 Sonnet |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Model Type | text | text |
| Context Window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Input Cost | $3.00/ 1M tokens | $3.00/ 1M tokens |
| Output Cost | $15.00/ 1M tokens | $15.00/ 1M tokens |
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Strengths & Best Use Cases
Claude 4.6 Sonnet
Anthropic1. Most capable Sonnet model yet
- Anthropic describes Sonnet 4.6 as its most capable Sonnet model.
- It is a full upgrade across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design.
2. Stronger coding and professional task performance at Sonnet pricing
- Pricing remains at $3/M input and $15/M output, matching Sonnet 4.5.
- Anthropic says early-access developers strongly preferred it to Sonnet 4.5, and often even to Opus 4.5 for practical work.
3. Long-context, agent-friendly reasoning
- Supports up to a 1M token context window in beta.
- Anthropic reports better consistency, fewer false claims of success, fewer hallucinations, and more reliable follow-through on multi-step tasks.
4. Modern API controls for adaptive work
- Supports adaptive thinking and the
effortparameter for balancing speed, cost, and depth. - Gains dynamic filtering for web search and web fetch, helping agent workflows keep only relevant information in context.
Claude 4.5 Sonnet
Anthropic1. Best-in-class coding performance
- #1 on SWE-bench Verified (77.2% standard, 82.0% high-compute).
- Excels at debugging, architecture, and multi-file code generation.
- Maintains coherence for extremely long tasks (30+ hours).
2. State-of-the-art computer use & agents
- Leads OSWorld at 61.4%.
- Strongest model for agentic workflows, multi-step tool use, and real computer control.
- Powering Claude Code, the new Claude Agent SDK, and Chrome agent actions.
3. Advanced reasoning & math
- Large improvements across reasoning-heavy benchmarks (AIME, MMMLU, τ2-bench, Terminal-Bench).
- Deep multi-step reasoning with extended or interleaved thinking.
4. High alignment & safety
- Most aligned Claude model to date with reduced deception, hallucinations, sycophancy, and harmful compliance.
- Strong protections against prompt injection for agentic tasks (ASL-3 safeguards).
5. Domain-expert performance
- Notable gains in finance, law, medicine, and STEM tasks.
- Trusted by early customers for long-context legal analysis, multi-file engineering, security research, and red-teaming.
Prompts to Get Started
Use these prompts to power AI products you build on Appaca. Each works great with the models above.
Best for Claude 4.6 Sonnet
textDevelop a Legal Strategy (Risks, Benefits, Alternatives)
Evaluate a proposed legal strategy with risks, benefits, alternatives, and a decision framework.
Customer Complaint Response Generator
Generate professional, empathetic responses to customer complaints that de-escalate situations and rebuild trust.
Exit Ticket Creator
Generate quick formative assessments that gauge student understanding and inform next-day instruction.
Best for Claude 4.5 Sonnet
textCustomer Complaint Response Generator
Generate professional, empathetic responses to customer complaints that de-escalate situations and rebuild trust.
Formative Assessment Ideas Generator
Generate diverse formative assessment strategies that check for understanding throughout a lesson without formal testing.
Prepare a Case (Outcome Matrix + Preparation Plan)
Map likely outcomes for a dispute and generate a practical preparation plan across facts, evidence, procedure, and settlement.