Best Claude Sonnet 4.6 Alternatives
Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic is a mid-tier model priced at $3/15 per 1M tokens (in/out). It's on the expensive side — there are cheaper options with similar quality.
Claude Sonnet 4.6
AnthropicMid-TierInput
$3/1M
Output
$15/1M
Context
200K
Max Output
16K
Why Switch from Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Top Alternatives
38% cheaper, higher benchmark scores, 1M context (5x more).
Input
$1.25/1M
58% cheaper
Output
$10/1M
33% cheaper
Context
1M
Max Output
66K
13% cheaper, higher benchmark scores, 66K max output.
Input
$1.75/1M
42% cheaper
Output
$14/1M
7% cheaper
Context
200K
Max Output
66K
Dramatically cheaper (61% less), higher benchmark scores.
Input
$2/1M
33% cheaper
Output
$5/1M
67% cheaper
Context
128K
Max Output
16K
Dramatically cheaper (84% less), comparable performance, 128K max output.
Input
$0.6/1M
80% cheaper
Output
$2.2/1M
85% cheaper
Context
200K
Max Output
128K
Comparable performance.
Input
$3/1M
Same price
Output
$15/1M
Same price
Context
200K
Max Output
16K
31% cheaper, adds audio.
Input
$2.5/1M
17% cheaper
Output
$10/1M
33% cheaper
Context
128K
Max Output
16K
38% cheaper, higher benchmark scores, adds audio.
Input
$1.25/1M
58% cheaper
Output
$10/1M
33% cheaper
Context
128K
Max Output
16K
22% cheaper, higher benchmark scores, 1M context (5x more).
Input
$2/1M
33% cheaper
Output
$12/1M
20% cheaper
Context
1M
Max Output
64K
Full Comparison Table
| Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Context | MMLU-Pro | HumanEval | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | $1.2558% cheaper | $10.0033% cheaper | 1M | 87.5%+1.5% | 93.5%-0.5% | 95 |
| GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAI | $1.7542% cheaper | $14.007% cheaper | 200K | 89%+3.0% | 95.5%+1.5% | 85 |
| Mistral Large 3Mistral | $2.0033% cheaper | $5.0067% cheaper | 128K | 83%-3.0% | 91%-3.0% | 85 |
| GLM-4.7Zhipu AI | $0.6080% cheaper | $2.2085% cheaper | 200K | 84.3%-1.7% | — | 84 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | $3.00Same price | $15.00Same price | 200K | 84.5%-1.5% | 93%-1.0% | 83 |
| GPT-4oOpenAI | $2.5017% cheaper | $10.0033% cheaper | 128K | 80.5%-5.5% | 91%-3.0% | 83 |
| GPT-5OpenAI | $1.2558% cheaper | $10.0033% cheaper | 128K | 88.5%+2.5% | 95%+1.0% | 80 |
| Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle | $2.0033% cheaper | $12.0020% cheaper | 1M | 91%+5.0% | 95%+1.0% | 80 |
| Gemini 3 ProGoogle | $2.0033% cheaper | $12.0020% cheaper | 1M | 89.8%+3.8% | 94%Same | 80 |
| Mistral Medium 3Mistral | $0.4087% cheaper | $2.0087% cheaper | 128K | 76%-10.0% | 87%-7.0% | 77 |
| Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | $5.0067% more | $25.0067% more | 200K | 89.5%+3.5% | 95%+1.0% | 75 |
| GPT-5.3 CodexOpenAI | $2.0033% cheaper | $16.007% more | 200K | 90%+4.0% | 96.5%+2.5% | 75 |
| o4-miniOpenAI | $1.1063% cheaper | $4.4071% cheaper | 200K | 85%-1.0% | 93.5%-0.5% | 75 |
| o3OpenAI | $0.4087% cheaper | $1.6089% cheaper | 200K | 87%+1.0% | 94.5%+0.5% | 75 |
| Gemini 3 FlashGoogle | $0.5083% cheaper | $3.0080% cheaper | 1M | 78%-8.0% | 90%-4.0% | 75 |
| Grok 4xAI | $3.00Same price | $15.00Same price | 128K | 86%Same | 93%-1.0% | 70 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | $0.8073% cheaper | $4.0073% cheaper | 200K | 69.4%-16.6% | 88.1%-5.9% | 62 |
| GLM-5Zhipu AI | $1.0067% cheaper | $3.2079% cheaper | 200K | 70.4%-15.6% | 91%-3.0% | 60 |
| Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | $0.1595% cheaper | $0.6096% cheaper | 1M | 76%-10.0% | 89.5%-4.5% | 58 |
| DeepSeek R1DeepSeek | $0.5582% cheaper | $2.1985% cheaper | 128K | 84%-2.0% | 92%-2.0% | 56 |
| Llama 4 MaverickMeta | $0.3190% cheaper | $0.8594% cheaper | 1M | 80.5%-5.5% | 90.2%-3.8% | 53 |
| DeepSeek V3DeepSeek | $0.1495% cheaper | $0.2898% cheaper | 164K | 78%-8.0% | 89%-5.0% | 53 |
| MiniMax M2.5MiniMax | $0.3090% cheaper | $1.2092% cheaper | 200K | 82%-4.0% | 90%-4.0% | 53 |
| Llama 4 ScoutMeta | $0.1894% cheaper | $0.6396% cheaper | 10M | 74.2%-11.8% | 86%-8.0% | 46 |
| GPT-4o MiniOpenAI | $0.1595% cheaper | $0.6096% cheaper | 128K | 68%-18.0% | 87.2%-6.8% | 44 |