Claude 3 Opus vs Claude 4 Sonnet

API pricing, context window and capabilities for Claude 3 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet, side by side. Prices are the cheapest listed serving route per 1M tokens, from LiteLLM and OpenRouter.

Verdict

computed from the published numbers

Claude 4 Sonnet wins on price and on intelligence. Benchmark data is unavailable for one or both models.

Price
Claude 4 Sonnet
Terminal-Bench
Not called
Intelligence
Claude 4 Sonnet
Context window
Tied

Key takeaways

who wins on what, from the published numbers

Claude 3 Opus wins

No clear edge on the tracked metrics.

Claude 4 Sonnet wins

  • Cheaper input ($15.00 vs $3.00 /1M)
  • Cheaper output ($75.00 vs $15.00 /1M)
  • Higher max output (4K vs 200K)
  • More serving providers (2 vs 4)
  • Supports prompt caching
Cheaper overall
Claude 4 Sonnet
$3.00 + $15.00 /1M
Larger context
Tied
More providers
Claude 4 Sonnet
4 providers

Pricing & specs

cheapest listed route · per 1M tokens
On-demand listed rates, OpenRouter routed quotes and Vercel reseller quotes. Enterprise commitments can be materially lower.
Claude 3 OpusClaude 4 Sonnet
Input $/1M$15.00via Vertex AI Anthropic Models $3.00via Replicate best
Output $/1M$75.00via Vertex AI Anthropic Models $15.00via Replicate best
Context window200K 200K
Max output4K 200K best
Serving providers2 4 best
DateReleased Mar 4, 2024 First listed Jul 2025

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores, side by side
Claude 3 OpusClaude 4 Sonnet
Intelligence8.7 16.6 best
Terminal-BenchNot available 36%
GPQA Diamond49% 68% best

Cost calculator

choose a serving route for each side
Input tokens / month
Output tokens / month
Claude 3 Opus
via Vertex AI Anthropic Models
$150
Claude 4 Sonnet
via Replicate
$30

Capabilities

feature support, side by side
FeatureClaude 3 OpusClaude 4 Sonnet
Vision✓✓
Tool use✓✓
Reasoning——
Audio——
Prompt caching—✓
Structured output✓✓
Web search——

Related comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, Claude 3 Opus or Claude 4 Sonnet?
Claude 4 Sonnet is cheaper for input ($15.00 vs $3.00 per 1M tokens) from Replicate. Claude 4 Sonnet is cheaper for output ($75.00 vs $15.00 per 1M tokens) from Replicate.
What is the context window difference between Claude 3 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet?
Both Claude 3 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet have about a 200K-token context window.
How do Claude 3 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet compare on benchmarks?
On the tracked benchmarks, Claude 4 Sonnet leads on intelligence.
Listed prices from LiteLLM, OpenRouter and Vercel · last checked Oct 14, 2026

Every weekday

AI moves fast. Here's your debrief.

News, analysis, tools, and more.

For people who build with AI