Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.2
Claude Sonnet 5 comes out ahead, 66 to 62 and 61 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4.6
62/100- ECI152.3
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context1M
- Our pickAnthropic
Claude Sonnet 5
66/100- ECI156.3
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
OpenAIGPT-5.2
61/100- ECI153.5
- Price$1.75 / $14.00
- Context400K
Claude Sonnet 5 is our pick
Claude Sonnet 5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62) and GPT-5.2 (61). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 · GPT-5.2 153.5 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3
- Lowest priceClaude Sonnet 5Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 · GPT-5.2 $4.81 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 5 1,000,000 · GPT-5.2 400,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Sonnet 5: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-5.2: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 | GPT-5.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 81 | 86 | 83 |
| Price | 25% | 13 | 21 | 18 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 60 | 44 |
| Overall | 100% | 62/100 | 66/100 | 61/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | GPT-5.2OpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 152.3 | 156.3 (best) | 153.5 |
| ECI rank | #40 of 148 | #23 of 148 (best) | #38 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 87.4% | 90.5% | 91.4% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 65.6% | 67.4% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 85.8% | 94.7% | 96.1% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 75.2% (best) | — | 73.8% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 35.5% | 33.7% | 37.1% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $3.00 | $2.00 | $1.75 (best) |
| Output | $15.00 | $10.00 (best) | $14.00 |
| Cached input | $0.30 | $0.20 | $0.175 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $6.00 | $4.00 (best) | $4.81 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Anthropic API | Official OpenAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 400,000 tokens |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-sonnet-4-6 | claude-sonnet-5 | gpt-5.2 |
| API providers | 41 (best) | 38 | 21 |
| Released | Feb 17, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | Dec 11, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 31, 2025 | Jan 31, 2026 | Aug 31, 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
- Claude Sonnet 5$40.00
- GPT-5.2$45.50
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-5.2?
Claude Sonnet 5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62) and GPT-5.2 (61). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-5.2?
Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). GPT-5.2 costs $1.75 input / $14.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $4.00 per million tokens for Claude Sonnet 5 versus $4.81 for GPT-5.2 (1.2× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 (#23 of 148), GPT-5.2 153.5 (#38 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (153.6–158.8 vs 151.7–155.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.2 91.4%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.2 96.1%, Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-5.2 37.1%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%, Claude Sonnet 5 33.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5 have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 400,000 for GPT-5.2. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000, Claude Sonnet 5 up to 128,000, GPT-5.2 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Sonnet 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-5.2 accepts text and images. Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-5.2 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Sonnet 5 is the newest, released Jun 30, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026; GPT-5.2 came out Dec 11, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 31, 2025, Claude Sonnet 5 Jan 31, 2026, GPT-5.2 Aug 31, 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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