Model Comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Devstral Small 1.1Which is better in 2026?
Comparing Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Devstral Small 1.1 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Devstral Small 1.1 — which is better?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 (by Anthropic) and Devstral Small 1.1 (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.
On price, Devstral Small 1.1 is roughly 40.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 if…
- you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Choose Devstral Small 1.1 if…
- cost matters — it's about 40.0x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Devstral Small 1.1don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 30.0x more expensive than Devstral Small 1.1 ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 50.0x more expensive than Devstral Small 1.1 ($0.30/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is more expensive than Devstral Small 1.1.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude Sonnet 4.5 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Devstral Small 1.1's 128,000 tokens. Devstral Small 1.1 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 is limited to 64,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Devstral Small 1.1 does not.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Devstral Small 1.1
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Devstral Small 1.1 uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude Sonnet 4.5 was released on 2025-09-29, while Devstral Small 1.1 was released on 2025-07-11.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is 3 months newer than Devstral Small 1.1.
Sep 29, 2025
9 months ago
2mo newerJul 11, 2025
11 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-01-31, while Devstral Small 1.1's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Claude Sonnet 4.5's training data extends to 2025-01-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Devstral Small 1.1's cutoff date.
Jan 2025
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Provider Availability
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is available from Anthropic. Devstral Small 1.1 is available from Mistral AI.
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Devstral Small 1.1
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Claude Sonnet 4.5
View detailsAnthropic
Devstral Small 1.1
View detailsMistral AI
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Devstral Small 1.1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Devstral Small 1.1.