Claude 3 Opus vs Claude 3 Sonnet
Claude 3 Opus leads the LLM Stats Score 9.9 to 1.7. Claude 3 Sonnet is 5.0x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Anthropic · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude 3 Opus leads the overall LLM Stats Score 9.9 to 1.7, ranking #273 overall.
In the 11 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude 3 Opus wins 11; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Claude 3 Sonnet is roughly 5.0x 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 Opus
- overall performance matters — it scores 9.9 and ranks #273 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 11 of 11 exact shared results
Choose Claude 3 Sonnet
- cost matters — it's about 5.0x cheaper per token
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
11 reported for Claude 3 Opus · 11 for Claude 3 Sonnet
Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 11 benchmarks (ARC-C, BIG-Bench Hard, DROP, GPQA, GSM8k, HellaSwag, HumanEval, MATH, MGSM, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Claude 3 Sonnet is better at 0 benchmarks.
Claude 3 Opus significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3 Opus ($15.00/1M tokens) is 5.0x more expensive than Claude 3 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3 Opus ($75.00/1M tokens) is 5.0x more expensive than Claude 3 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3 Opus is more expensive than Claude 3 Sonnet.*
* 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. Both models can generate responses up to 200,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Claude 3 Opus and Claude 3 Sonnet support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude 3 Opus
Claude 3 Sonnet
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
Both models were released on 2024-02-29.
They likely represent similar generations of model development.
Feb 29, 2024
2.6 years ago
Feb 29, 2024
2.6 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3 Opus is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Claude 3 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google.
Claude 3 Opus
Claude 3 Sonnet
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Opus and Claude 3 Sonnet side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3 Opus vs Claude 3 Sonnet.