Compare/Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)

Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)vsClaude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)

Input
$5/M
Output
$25/M
Speed
48 tok/s
TTFT
2.13s
Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)

Input
$3/M
Output
$15/M
Speed
55 tok/s
TTFT
1.09s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
Faster (tok/s)
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
Lower Latency
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
Benchmarks (5-1)
Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)

Pricing Comparison

MetricClaude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
Input ($/M tokens)$5$3
Output ($/M tokens)$25$15
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)$7.50
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)$4.50

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
48 tok/s
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
55 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
2.13s
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)
1.09s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
37.835.9
Coding Index
Math Index
GPQA Diamond
84.0%79.9%
MMLU-Pro
LiveCodeBench
AIME 2025
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
18.6%13.2%
SciCode
45.7%46.9%
IFBench
44.6%41.2%
TerminalBench
48.5%46.2%
Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)5 wins
1 winsClaude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) or Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $6.00/M tokens vs $10.00/M for Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) wins 5 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 1 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) generates tokens faster at 55 tok/s vs 48 tok/s. However, Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) has lower time-to-first-token (1.09s vs 2.13s).

When should I use Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)?

Choose based on your priorities: Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) for lower cost, Claude Opus 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) for stronger benchmark performance, and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.