Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Haiku 4.5
Compare Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude Haiku 4.5 API pricing: input/output token costs, cache pricing, context windows, workload estimates, and routing fit.
Claude Sonnet 4.6
anthropic · claude-sonnet-4-6
- Input
- $3
- Output
- $15
- Context
- 1M
Claude Haiku 4.5
anthropic · claude-haiku-4-5
- Input
- $1
- Output
- $5
- Context
- 200K
Quick take
Claude Haiku 4.5 has the lower input price at $1 per 1M input tokens. Claude Haiku 4.5 is cheaper for the example blended workload below. Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the larger context window at 1M tokens.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 if...
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is safer for long documents, repository analysis, and RAG prompts because it has the larger context window.
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 if...
- Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better default for cost-sensitive traffic and repeated high-volume calls.
Example workload cost
Estimates use input tokens plus 20% output tokens. They exclude provider discounts, cache hits, and tool/search surcharges.
| Workload | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M input + 200K output | $6.00 | $2.00 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| 10M input + 2M output | $60.00 | $20.00 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| 100M input + 20M output | $600.00 | $200.00 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
Context, output, and capability fit
Claude Sonnet 4.6 provides the larger context window. Check max output separately when the task needs long reports, code generation, or full-document rewrites.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 max output
- 64K
- Claude Haiku 4.5 max output
- 64K
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 features
- prompt caching, function calling, vision
- Claude Haiku 4.5 features
- prompt caching, function calling, vision
Risk notes for Claude Sonnet 4.6
- No major capability risk is flagged in this snapshot, but provider pages should still be verified before production routing.
Risk notes for Claude Haiku 4.5
- No major capability risk is flagged in this snapshot, but provider pages should still be verified before production routing.
Routing tags
frontierreasoningcodingagentsenterprise-ragcache-friendlyragfastbudget