What is the difference between Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Claude Opus 4.6?

Both are developed by Anthropic but target different use cases. Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) has a 200K token context window vs Claude Opus 4.6's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) or Claude Opus 4.6?

It depends on your use case. Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Claude Opus 4.6 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) cost compared to Claude Opus 4.6?

Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) costs $3/M input tokens and Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5/M input tokens. Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) is $2.00/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Claude Opus 4.6 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Claude Opus 4.6 across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

Updated Feb 2026

Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22)vsClaude Opus 4.6

Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) is cheaper than Claude Opus 4.6 at $3/M vs $5/M input tokens.

Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Claude Opus 4.6 compared across 53 shared prompts
Spec	Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22)	Claude Opus 4.6
Input price	$3/M tokens	$5/M tokens
Output price	$15/M tokens	$25/M tokens
Context window	200K tokens	1.0M tokens
Weights	—	Closed
Free API (OpenRouter)	No	No
Released	Jun 2024	Feb 2026
SWE-bench Verified	49.0%	80.8%