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Claude Sonnet 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6

0 vs 2 benchmarks won

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Overview
CompanyAnthropicAnthropic
Release dateMay 22 2025Feb 17 2026
Model type
Open sourceNoNo
Specifications
Parameters
Context window
Benchmarks
Science reasoning
GPQA Diamond
75.4%
89.9%
Software engineering
SWE-Bench Verified
72.7%
79.6%
Multimodal understanding
MMMU
Timeline
Release gapClaude Sonnet 4 shipped 271 days before Claude Sonnet 4.6

Which is better: Claude Sonnet 4 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads Claude Sonnet 4 on 2 of the tracked benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, SWE-Bench Verified, MMMU). Claude Sonnet 4 shipped 271 days before Claude Sonnet 4.6, so benchmark comparisons should account for the intervening progress.

Published specifications for these two models are limited — see each model page for the latest details.

On GPQA Diamond, Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 89.9%, 14.5 points above Claude Sonnet 4 at 75.4%. On SWE-Bench Verified, Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 79.6%, 6.9 points above Claude Sonnet 4 at 72.7%.

Frequently asked questions

When was Claude Sonnet 4 released?
Claude Sonnet 4 was released by Anthropic on May 22 2025.
When was Claude Sonnet 4.6 released?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released by Anthropic on Feb 17 2026.
Which is better on GPQA Diamond, Claude Sonnet 4 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores higher on GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 4 75.4% vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 89.9%.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
On SWE-Bench Verified (real-world software-engineering tasks), Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads — Claude Sonnet 4 scores 72.7% and Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 79.6%.

Other comparisons