Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 5 is the better buy: the AIGROW small-business benchmark cannot tell the two apart, and Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower list price. Claude Sonnet 5 passed 17 of 20 tasks and costs $2 in and $10 out per million tokens; Claude Sonnet 4.6 passed 15 and costs $3 in and $15 out.
AIGROW credit covers Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Fable 5.2, Claude Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6.1 Terra, Grok 4.7 and Gemini 4 Argon. Claude Sonnet 5.5 below list price
$25 a month brings $110 of API credit and cancels any time; $25 once buys $100. US dollars, standard rate, shortest context band. Cost per pass from the AIGROW small-business benchmark. Newer comparison: Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Claude Sonnet 5
- $6.70
- Tasks passed
- 17 of 20
- Claude Sonnet 4.6
- $11.24
- Tasks passed
- 15 of 20
AIGROW small-business benchmark, failed runs included.
An upgrade decision where the newer model is also the cheaper one. Claude Sonnet 5 costs $6.70 per 1,000 passing answers on the AIGROW small-business benchmark, Claude Sonnet 4.6 $11.24. 1,000 support replies cost $15.00 on Claude Sonnet 4.6 and $10.00 on Claude Sonnet 5, so Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs 50% more.
What each one costs
The API price per million tokens and the cheapest app plan with each model, from the makers’ own pages. Each name opens that model’s full price page.
- Claude Sonnet 5
- On the Anthropic API, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6
- On the Anthropic API, Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens.
Side by side
Each maker’s published rate for its standard tier. Cached input is what a repeated prompt prefix costs once the provider has stored it.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Tier | Workhorses | Workhorses |
| Input, per M tokens | $2.00 | $3.00 |
| Output, per M tokens | $10.00 | $15.00 |
| Cached input | $0.20 | $0.30 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Released | 30 Jun 2026 | 17 Feb 2026 |
| Weights | Closed weights | Closed weights |
What a job costs on each
1,000 runs of each job at the two list prices. The gap moves from job to job because the models price input, output and cached context differently.
| Job | Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support reply3,000 in, 400 out. | $10.00 | $15.00 | Claude Sonnet 5, 33% less |
| Document summary25,000 in, 1,000 out. | $60.00 | $90.00 | Claude Sonnet 5, 33% less |
| Agent task80,000 in (70,000 cached), 3,000 out. | $64.00 | $96.00 | Claude Sonnet 5, 33% less |
The token counts are ours, chosen to look like real work; the prices are the makers’. A model with no published cache price bills the agent task’s repeated context at its full input rate.
The small print
What each base rate leaves out, from the makers’ own pages: surcharges, discounts, promotions and cache pricing.
- Claude Sonnet 5
- Legacy model, still available; the current Sonnet is Claude Sonnet 5.5. The introductory $2 / $10 price became the standard price; the planned rise to $3 / $15 was cancelled. Cache write $2.50 (5 min) or $4 (1 h). Batch API 50% off. US-only inference bills 1.1x. Full context window billed at standard rates. Anthropic’s pricing page
- Claude Sonnet 4.6
- Legacy model, still available; the current Sonnet is Claude Sonnet 5.5. Cache write $3.75 (5 min) or $6 (1 h). Batch API 50% off. US-only inference bills 1.1x. Full context window billed at standard rates. Anthropic’s pricing page
Other comparisons
Every head to head on the list that involves Claude Sonnet 5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Compare Claude Sonnet 5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 with 52 other models
The price list sets every model’s input and output price side by side, with what a support reply, a document summary and an agent task cost on each.
Prices checked 12 November 2026