Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs o4 Mini (Comparative Analysis)
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Comparative Analysis: Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs. o4 Mini
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Overview
o4 Mini was released 10 months before Claude Sonnet 4.6.
 Claude Sonnet 4.6 |  o4 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
Model Provider The organization behind this AI's development | Anthropic | OpenAI |
Input Context Window Maximum input tokens this model can process at once | 1M tokens | 200K tokens |
Output Token Limit Maximum output tokens this model can generate at once | 128K tokens | 100K tokens |
Release Date When this model first became publicly available | February 17, 2026 5 months ago February 17th, 2026 | April 16, 2025 1 year ago April 16th, 2025 |
Knowledge Cutoff Latest training-data date reported by the provider | Not reported | June 30, 2024 |
Capabilities & Features
Compare supported features, modalities, and advanced capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.6 | o4 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
Input Types Supported input formats | 📝Text🖼️Image📁File | 🖼️Image📝Text📁File |
Reasoning Controls Defaults and configurable reasoning effort | OptionalEffort: Max, High, Medium, LowDefault: Medium | Optional |
Output Types Supported output formats | 📝Text | 📝Text |
Tokenizer Text encoding system | Claude | GPT |
Key Features Advanced capabilities | ✓Function Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning Mode✓Content Moderation | ✓Function Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning Mode✓Content Moderation |
Pricing
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is roughly 2.7x more expensive compared to o4 Mini for input tokens and roughly 3.4x more expensive for output tokens.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | o4 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
Input Token Cost Cost per million input tokens | $3.00 per million tokens | $1.10 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Cost per million output tokens | $15.00 per million tokens | $4.40 per million tokens |
Web Search Cost Additional cost for each web search operation | $0.01 per search | $0.01 per search |
Cache Read Cost Cost to reuse cached input tokens | $0.30 per million tokens | $0.28 per million tokens |
Cache Write Cost Cost to write input tokens to the cache | $3.75 per million tokens | Not specified |
1-Hour Cache Write Cost Cost to cache input tokens for one hour | $6.00 per million tokens | Not specified |
Benchmarks
Compare relevant benchmarks between Claude Sonnet 4.6 and o4 Mini.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | o4 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Overall model quality across independent evaluations | 47.2 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | Benchmark not available. |
Coding Index Programming performance across independent evaluations | 63 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | Benchmark not available. |
Agentic Index Ability to complete multi-step agentic tasks | 40.8 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | Benchmark not available. |
Best Design Arena Score Highest human-preference Elo score across design arenas | 1,318 Elo (#6 in Website (61.3% win rate)) | 1,061 Elo (#87 in Game Dev (50.0% win rate)) |
At a Glance
Quick overview of what makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 and o4 Mini unique.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic understands both text and images, can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 1M token context window. Premium pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output tokens. Includes built-in content moderation for safer outputs. Released February 17th, 2026.o4 Mini by OpenAI understands both text and images, can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 200K token context window. Reasonably priced at $1.10/M input and $4.40/M output tokens. Includes built-in content moderation for safer outputs. Released April 16th, 2025.Explore More Comparisons
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Compare o4 Mini with:
🚀Programming
Best models for coding and development
🎨Creative & Roleplay
Models optimized for creative writing
📢Marketing
Content creation and marketing tasks
💻Technology
Technical analysis and explanations
🔬Science
Scientific research and analysis
🌐Translation
Multilingual translation tasks