Claude Sonnet 4.6vsClaude Sonnet 4.5
Across 13 shared benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads overall: Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins 11, Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins 2, with 0 ties and an average score difference of +21.90.
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic · 2026-02-17 · Chat model
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Anthropic · 2025-09-30 · Chat model
Claude Sonnet 4.611 wins(85%)(15%)2 winsClaude Sonnet 4.5
Benchmark scores
Grouped by capability, sorted by largest gap within each. 13 shared benchmarks.
Agent Level Benchmark
Claude Sonnet 4.6 2/2| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal Bench Hard | 46.2029 / 244Normal (With Tools) | 28.80116 / 244Normal (With Tools) | +17.40 |
| τ²-Bench - Telecom | 79.50115 / 264Normal (With Tools) | 70.50138 / 264Normal (With Tools) | +9 |
AI Agent - Tool Usage
Claude Sonnet 4.6 2/2| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal Bench 2.0 | 59.1022 / 48Thinking (With Tools) | 42.8043 / 48Thinking (With Tools) | +16.30 |
| OSWorld-Verified | 72.5017 / 26Thinking (With Tools) | 61.4022 / 26Thinking (With Tools) | +11.10 |
AI Agent - Information Search
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| BrowseComp | 74.7029 / 57Thinking (With Tools) | 24.1055 / 57Thinking (With Tools) | +50.60 |
Claw-style Agent Evaluation
Claude Sonnet 4.5 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinch Bench | 886 / 38Thinking (With Tools) | 88.205 / 38Thinking (With Tools) | -0.20 |
General Evaluation
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 79.90237 / 462Normal (No Tools) | 73.70292 / 462Normal (No Tools) | +6.20 |
General Knowledge
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| HLE | 13.30355 / 563Normal (No Tools) · Text only | 7.20436 / 563Normal (No Tools) · Text only | +6.10 |
Instruction Following
Claude Sonnet 4.5 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| IF Bench | 42.40201 / 282Normal (No Tools) | 42.70199 / 282Normal (No Tools) | -0.30 |
Long Context
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-LCR | 69.30107 / 170Normal (No Tools) | 54133 / 170Normal (No Tools) | +15.30 |
Multimodal Understanding
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMMU-Pro | 70.60123 / 227Normal (No Tools) | 65.20151 / 227Normal (No Tools) | +5.40 |
Productivity Knowledge
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDPval-AA | 575 / 15Thinking (No Tools) | 3910 / 15Thinking (No Tools) | +18 |
Writing and Creative Capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.6 1/1| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creative Writing | 1,80418 / 106Normal (No Tools) | 1,67430 / 106Normal (No Tools) | +129.80 |
Specs
| Field | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Release date | 2026-02-17 | 2025-09-30 |
| Model type | Chat model | Chat model |
| Architecture | Dense | Dense |
| Parameters | Not available | Not available |
| Context length | 1M | 1000K |
| Max output | 8K | 64K |
API pricing
Prices use DataLearner records when available; missing fields are not inferred.
| Item | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Text input | $3 / 1M tokens | $3 / 1M tokens |
| Text output | $15 / 1M tokens | $15 / 1M tokens |
| Cache read | $0.3 / 1M tokens | $0.3 / 1M tokens |
| Cache write | $3.75 / 1M tokens | $3.75 / 1M tokens |
Summary
- Claude Sonnet 4.6leads in:Agent Level Benchmark (2/2), AI Agent - Tool Usage (2/2), AI Agent - Information Search (1/1), General Evaluation (1/1), General Knowledge (1/1), Long Context (1/1), Multimodal Understanding (1/1), Productivity Knowledge (1/1), Writing and Creative Capabilities (1/1)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5leads in:Claw-style Agent Evaluation (1/1), Instruction Following (1/1)
On average across the 13 shared benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 21.90 higher.
Largest single-benchmark gap: Creative Writing — Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,804 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 1,674 (+129.80).
Page generated from structured model, pricing and benchmark records. No real-time LLM is used to write the prose.