Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs o4-mini
Wins 6 of 7 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Images and charts · Long documents
Wins 1 of 7 areas
Following instructions
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the stronger all-rounder.o4-mini is cheaper and better at following instructions.
Scores updated · 28 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the seven areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking40Claude Sonnet 4.64 of 4 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up40Claude Sonnet 4.64 of 4 tests
- CodingWriting and fixing software30Claude Sonnet 4.63 of 3 tests
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video20Claude Sonnet 4.62 of 3 tests · 1 tie
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own20Claude Sonnet 4.62 of 2 tests
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Claude Sonnet 4.61 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked01o4-mini1 of 1 test
Long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
o4-mini costs 69% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Sonnet 4.6 pulls ahead
- Abstract visual puzzles that people can solveARC-AGI-2+52.2points ahead
- Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+37.8points ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+32.1points ahead
Where o4-mini pulls ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+12.1points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 28 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Sonnet 4.6
- Terminal-Bench HardClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 37.85315.2+37.8
- SWE-bench VerifiedClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 11.579.668.1+11.5
- SciCodeClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 3.650.146.5+3.6
AgentsClaude Sonnet 4.6
- BrowseCompClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 23.274.751.5+23.2
- GDPValClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 11.336.725.4+11.3
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4.6
- ARC-AGI-2Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 52.258.36.1+52.2
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 17.133.616.5+17.1
- GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 9.187.578.4+9.1
- CritPtClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 2.53.10.6+2.5
FactsClaude Sonnet 4.6
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 32.151.619.5+32.1
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 16.140.924.8+16.1
- SimpleQA VerifiedClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 1432.818.8+14
- Vectara HHEM hallucination ratelower is betterClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 810.618.6+8
Images and chartsClaude Sonnet 4.6
- LMArena · VisionClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 89 rating points12831194+89 rating
- MMMU-ProClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 4.173.369.2+4.1
- CharXiv (RQ)tie71.672tie
Other results10 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 47.912.2-35.7+47.9
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 37.46325.6+37.4
- ARC-AGI-1Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 27.38658.7+27.3
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 20.175.755.6+20.1
- AA IntelligenceClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 13.430.116.7+13.4
- vectara_factual_consistencyClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 889.481.4+8
- AA Agentic Indexo4-mini by 333.136.1+3
- frontiermath_tier_4_v1Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 28.36.3+2
- vectara_avg_summary_lengtho4-mini by 13 rating points114.7127.7+13 rating
- vectara_answer_ratetie99.999.2tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or o4-mini?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins six of the seven areas where both have results: coding, agents, reasoning, facts, images and charts and long documents. o4-mini wins following instructions, and costs 69% less.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 4.6. It wins 3 of the 3 coding tests both models report; o4-mini wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; o4-mini costs $1.10 and $4.40. That makes o4-mini about 69% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 28 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 18 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 10 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.