Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking Comparison

Comparing Claude Sonnet 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

4 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4.6 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, SWE-Bench Verified, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while LongCat-Flash-Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Mar 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

LongCat-Flash-Thinking costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 12.5x more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking ($1.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Mar 17 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Thinking's 128,000 tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 is limited to 64,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Tue Mar 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking does not.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking uses MIT.

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

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released on 2026-02-17, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is 5 months newer than LongCat-Flash-Thinking.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Feb 17, 2026

4 weeks ago

4mo newer
LongCat-Flash-Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

5 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available from Anthropic. LongCat-Flash-Thinking is available from Meituan. The availability of providers can affect quality of the model and reliability.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (89.9% vs 81.5%)
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (79.6% vs 59.4%)
Higher Tau2 Retail score (91.7% vs 71.5%)
Higher Tau2 Telecom score (97.9% vs 83.1%)
Meituan
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking