Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4 vs Magistral Small 2506Which is better in 2026?

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4 vs Magistral Small 2506 — which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4 (by Anthropic) and Magistral Small 2506 (by Mistral AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude Sonnet 4 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Magistral Small 2506 is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude Sonnet 4 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks

Choose Magistral Small 2506 if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Magistral Small 2506 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jun 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude Sonnet 4 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude Sonnet 4 specifies output context (64,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jun 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Magistral Small 2506 does not.

Claude Sonnet 4 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 4

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Magistral Small 2506

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Magistral Small 2506 uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude Sonnet 4

Proprietary

Closed source

Magistral Small 2506

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4 was released on 2025-05-22, while Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10.

Magistral Small 2506 is 1 month newer than Claude Sonnet 4.

Claude Sonnet 4

May 22, 2025

1.1 years ago

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 10, 2025

1.0 years ago

2w newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Magistral Small 2506 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Claude Sonnet 4's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Magistral Small 2506's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude Sonnet 4's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 4

—

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 2025

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher AIME 2025 score (70.5% vs 62.8%)
Higher GPQA score (75.4% vs 68.2%)
Mistral AI
Has open weights
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
Mistral AIMagistral Small 2506
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4 vs Magistral Small 2506.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or Magistral Small 2506?

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4 is made by Anthropic and Magistral Small 2506 is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude Sonnet 4 compare to Magistral Small 2506 in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4 scores MMMLU: 86.5%, TAU-bench Retail: 80.5%, GPQA: 75.4%, MMMU: 74.4%, SWE-Bench Verified: 72.7%. Magistral Small 2506 scores AIME 2024: 70.7%, GPQA: 68.2%, AIME 2025: 62.8%, LiveCodeBench: 51.3%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4 and Magistral Small 2506?

Claude Sonnet 4 supports 200K tokens and Magistral Small 2506 supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 4 and Magistral Small 2506?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 4 and Magistral Small 2506?

Claude Sonnet 4 is developed by Anthropic and Magistral Small 2506 is developed by Mistral AI.

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