Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs o3-mini
Claude 3.5 Sonnet and o3-mini are closely matched at 19.1 and 21.5 on the LLM Stats Score. o3-mini is 3.1x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · OpenAI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet and o3-mini are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 19.1 and 21.5.
In the 7 individual benchmarks reported for both models, o3-mini wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, o3-mini is roughly 3.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet
- you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output
Choose o3-mini
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 7 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 3.1x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
19 reported for Claude 3.5 Sonnet · 25 for o3-mini
Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 3 benchmarks (MMLU, TAU-bench Airline, TAU-bench Retail), while o3-mini is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MGSM, SWE-Bench Verified).
o3-mini has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 2.7x more expensive than o3-mini ($1.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 3.4x more expensive than o3-mini ($4.40/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is more expensive than o3-mini.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 200,000 tokens. Claude 3.5 Sonnet can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while o3-mini is limited to 100,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports multimodal inputs, whereas o3-mini does not.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
o3-mini
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-10-22, while o3-mini was released on 2025-01-30.
o3-mini is 3 months newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Oct 22, 2024
1.9 years ago
Jan 30, 2025
1.6 years ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o3-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-09-30, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm o3-mini's training data extends to 2023-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude 3.5 Sonnet's cutoff date.
—
Sep 2023
Provider Availability
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. o3-mini is available from Azure, OpenAI.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
o3-mini
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3.5 Sonnet and o3-mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs o3-mini.