Claude Sonnet 4.6
The first Sonnet to surpass the prior generation's Opus on coding, with improved consistency and instruction following.
Key Specifications
- Context window
- 1M tokens
- Max output
- 128K tokens
- Knowledge cutoff
- web search available
- Released
- Inputs
- Text, image
- Capabilities Show details
- Reasoning Thinks before it answers, always on or as a switchable mode. Function calling Connect to external tools, APIs, and systems. Structured output Return responses in structured formats like JSON. Web search Search the web for up-to-date information. Code execution Write and execute code in a sandboxed environment. File upload Process uploaded documents, spreadsheets, and other files. MCP Connect to services via Model Context Protocol.
Hosted API pricing
| Provider | Input /1M tokens | Output /1M tokens | Cached input /1M | Cost at 10M in + 2M out | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
Creator
|
$3.00 | $15.00 | $0.30 | $60.00 | View |
DigitalOcean
|
$3.00 | $15.00 | $0.30 | $60.00 | View |
Replicate
|
$3.00 | $15.00 | $60.00 | View |
Heads up: Base-tier, on-demand rates per 1M tokens; cached, batch and long-context tiers excluded. A provider may serve a shorter context or a quantized build than the creator's release. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
Similarly priced models
The models nearest Claude Sonnet 4.6 by blended rate, each at its own cheapest provider.
| Model | Blended /1M | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context | Cutoff | vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GPT-4o
OpenAI
|
$3.75 | $2.50 | $10.00 | 128K | Oct 2023 | −25% |
|
GPT-5.2
OpenAI
|
$3.7917 | $1.75 | $14.00 | 400K | Aug 2025 | −24% |
|
GPT-5.3-Codex
OpenAI
|
$3.7917 | $1.75 | $14.00 | 400K | Aug 2025 | −24% |
|
GPT-5.4
OpenAI
|
$4.5833 | $2.50 | $15.00 | 1M | Aug 2025 | −8% |
|
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Anthropic
|
$5.00 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 200K | Jan 2025 | 0% |
|
Claude Sonnet 4.6
This model
Anthropic
|
$5.00 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 1M | Aug 2025 | |
|
Claude Opus 4.5
Anthropic
|
$8.3333 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 200K | May 2025 | +67% |
|
Claude Opus 4.6
Anthropic
|
$8.3333 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | May 2025 | +67% |
|
Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic
|
$8.3333 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | Jan 2026 | +67% |
|
Claude Opus 4.8
Anthropic
|
$8.3333 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | Jan 2026 | +67% |
|
Claude Opus 5
Anthropic
|
$8.3333 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | May 2026 | +67% |
Prices are USD per 1M tokens at each model's cheapest listed provider. Blended is the cost of 10M input plus 2M output tokens, spread over the 12M.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Claude Sonnet 4.6 good for?
Coding, consistency and instruction following, taking text, images and PDFs. It is priced at Anthropic's Sonnet tier.
When is Claude Sonnet 4.6 not a good fit?
New work where Sonnet 5 is available: it costs less, matches the limits, and knows more recent events. No audio or video input, text-only output, and closed weights, so no self-hosting.
What is the cheapest way to run Claude Sonnet 4.6?
The cheapest hosted rate is $3.00 / $15.00 per 1M tokens via Anthropic.
How does Claude Sonnet 4.6 compare with Claude Sonnet 5?
Anthropic says Claude Sonnet 5 is a substantial step up from Claude Sonnet 4.6 in reasoning, tool use, coding and knowledge work, finishing tasks where earlier Sonnets stopped short and checking its own output unasked. It uses a new tokenizer and hallucinates less. Same 1M-token context and text and image input. Claude Sonnet 4.6 lists at 50% more per 1M input tokens and 50% more per 1M output tokens than Claude Sonnet 5. It came out 4 months earlier and has an older knowledge cutoff (August 2025 against January 2026).
Can I self-host Claude Sonnet 4.6?
No. Anthropic does not publish the weights; Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available only through hosted APIs.
More from Anthropic
| Model | Context | Input /1M | Output /1M |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Claude Sonnet 4
|
200K | $3.00 | $15.00 |
|
Claude Sonnet 4.5
|
200K | $3.00 | $15.00 |
|
Claude Sonnet 5
|
1M | $2.00 | $10.00 |
|
Claude Opus 5
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.7
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.8
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.6
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.5
|
200K | $5.00 | $25.00 |