Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude 3 Sonnet
Side-by-side pricing and cost comparison for AI coding projects.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
AnthropicPrevious generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.
| Input | $3.00/M |
| Output | $15.00/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | Coding assistants, web development, data analysis |
Claude 3 Sonnet
AnthropicFirst generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.
| Input | $3.00/M |
| Output | $15.00/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | General-purpose coding and reasoning |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
| Scenario | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Claude 3 Sonnet | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.62 | $0.55 | Claude 3 Sonnet saves $0.06 (10%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $4.66 | $4.05 | Claude 3 Sonnet saves $0.61 (13%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $23.29 | $20.25 | Claude 3 Sonnet saves $3.04 (13%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $1.20 | $0.90 | Claude 3 Sonnet saves $0.30 (25%) |
Verdict
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is cheaper at $3.00/M input vs $3.00/M for Claude 3 Sonnet.
For a typical medium feature project, Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $4.66 compared to $4.05 for Claude 3 Sonnet.
However, Claude 3 Sonnet may offer general-purpose coding and reasoning — choose based on your specific needs.
Compare with Other Models
Claude Sonnet 4
AnthropicAnthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.
Claude Opus 4
AnthropicAnthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.
Claude 3.5 Haiku
AnthropicFast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.
Claude 3 Opus
AnthropicFirst generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.
Claude 3 Haiku
AnthropicCheapest Claude model. Fast responses for simple tasks and basic coding.
GPT-4o
OpenAIOpenAI's flagship multimodal model. Strong coding and reasoning at competitive pricing.