ModelRefs / Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4
Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4
Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.
Overview
Claude 3 Opus: Claude 3 Opus is Anthropic's February 2024 frontier model and the most capable of the original Claude 3 family, accepting text and image input across a 200,000-token context window. The claude-3-opus-20240229 snapshot was deprecated on 30 June 2025 and retired on Anthropic-operated platforms on 5 January 2026, with Claude Opus 4.8 named as its replacement.
Claude Sonnet 4: Claude Sonnet 4 is Anthropic's May 2025 hybrid-reasoning model for coding, visual reasoning, tool use, and agent workflows. The dated claude-sonnet-4-20250514 snapshot was retired on Anthropic-operated platforms on June 15, 2026 and is retained as a historical evaluation and migration reference.
Context window: Claude 3 Opus accepts up to 200,000 tokens, Claude Sonnet 4 up to 200,000. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.
Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4 at a glance
| Attribute | Claude 3 Opus | Claude Sonnet 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | 2024-02-29 | 2025-05-22 |
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Input price | $15/M tokens | $3/M tokens |
| Output price | $75/M tokens | $15/M tokens |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable | No, hosted only | No, hosted only |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
Benchmarks reported for both
| Benchmark | Claude 3 Opus | Claude Sonnet 4 | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (accuracy) | 50.4 | 75.4 | 2024-03-04 / 2025-05-22 |
Each row compares the same benchmark, the same reported metric, and the same task set. Scores are as published by their cited sources on the dates shown. Different runs still use different harnesses and prompts, so treat these as directional evidence rather than a head-to-head result.
Where they differ most
- Reasoning: Claude 3 Opus 38%, Claude Sonnet 4 73%. Claude Sonnet 4 leads on this dimension.
Capability scores are ModelRefs' own derived signals, not vendor claims or benchmark results. Validate against your own workload before relying on them.
Continue your research
Use these connected ModelRefs sections to compare alternatives, inspect implementation paths, and review the evidence and governance boundaries relevant to Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Sonnet 4.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Claude 3 Opus or Claude Sonnet 4?
Claude 3 Opus and Claude Sonnet 4 target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.
Is Claude 3 Opus cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4?
Compare $0.0150 vs $0.00300 on this page.