ModelRefs / Claude Sonnet 4 vs o4 Mini
Claude Sonnet 4 vs o4 Mini
Claude Sonnet 4 vs o4 Mini: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.
Overview
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.
o4 Mini: o4 Mini is OpenAI's efficient reasoning model, adding vision support to the mini reasoning tier for agentic tasks needing both image understanding and step-by-step logic at low cost per task. It is now deprecated: OpenAI gives the o4-mini-2025-04-16 snapshot and the o4-mini alias a shutdown date of 23 October 2026, with gpt-5.6-terra as the substitute.
Context window: Claude Sonnet 4 accepts up to 200,000 tokens, o4 Mini up to 200,000. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.
Claude Sonnet 4 vs o4 Mini at a glance
| Attribute | Claude Sonnet 4 | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| Released | 2025-05-22 | 2025-04-16 |
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Input price | $3/M tokens | $1.1/M tokens |
| Output price | $15/M tokens | $4.4/M tokens |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable | No, hosted only | No, hosted only |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
Benchmarks reported for both
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4 | o4 Mini | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (accuracy) | 75.4 | 77.6 | 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
- Cost Efficiency: Claude Sonnet 4 37%, o4 Mini 63%. o4 Mini leads on this dimension.
- Reasoning: Claude Sonnet 4 73%, o4 Mini 79%. o4 Mini 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 Sonnet 4 vs o4 Mini.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or o4 Mini?
Claude Sonnet 4 and o4 Mini target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.
Is Claude Sonnet 4 cheaper than o4 Mini?
Compare $0.00300 vs $0.00110 on this page.