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Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4 vs Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5

Head-to-head API cost, context, and performance comparison. Synced at 11:21:34 AM.

Executive Summary

When evaluating Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4 against Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5, the pricing structure is a key differentiator. Both models are remarkably similar in API costs.

However, when looking at raw reasoning capabilities, Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads with a statistical ELO score of 1200. For tasks involving complex logic, coding, or instruction-following, developers might prefer Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5, provided their budget allows for the API burn rate.

Raw Technical comparison

Metric
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4
Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5
Performance (ELO)
1200
1200
Input Cost / 1M
$3.00
$3.00
Output Cost / 1M
$15.00
$15.00
Context Window
200,000 tokens
1,000,000 tokens

Verdict

If you are looking for pure performance and capability, Tie is statistically superior. However, if API burn rate is the primary concern, Tie wins out aggressively in pricing.

People Also Ask

Is Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4 cheaper than Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5?

No. Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the more cost-effective model, operating at a lower price point per 1 million tokens.

Which model has the larger context window?

The Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5 model has the advantage in memory, offering a massive 1,000,000 token limit for document ingestion.

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