Claude 3 Sonnet vs GPT-4o
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
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 |
| Benchmark | 65/100 |
GPT-4o
OpenAIOpenAI's flagship multimodal model. Strong coding and reasoning at competitive pricing.
| Input | $2.50/M |
| Output | $10.00/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | General coding, multimodal tasks, chatbots |
| Benchmark | 75/100 |
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Third-party benchmark scores — higher is better. Data sourced from SWE-bench, LiveCodeBench, HumanEval, and BigCodeBench.
| Benchmark | Claude 3 Sonnet | GPT-4o | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65 | 75 | GPT-4o leads by 10pts |
| SWE-bench Verified | 58 | 70 | GPT-4o leads by 12pts |
| LiveCodeBench | 68 | 78 | GPT-4o leads by 10pts |
| HumanEval | 85 | 90 | GPT-4o leads by 5pts |
| BigCodeBench | 50 | 62 | GPT-4o leads by 12pts |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Claude 3 Sonnet | GPT-4o | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.55 | $0.41 | GPT-4o saves $0.15 (27%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $4.05 | $3.06 | GPT-4o saves $0.99 (24%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $20.25 | $15.31 | GPT-4o saves $4.94 (24%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.90 | $0.78 | GPT-4o saves $0.12 (13%) |
Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)
Lower is better — how much you pay for each point of benchmark performance.
| Model | Overall Score | Price per Score Point | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude 3 Sonnet | 65 | $0.046/pt | Higher cost per point |
| GPT-4o | 75 | $0.033/pt | Better value |
GPT-4o delivers the best value at $0.033 per score point.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Claude 3 Sonnet
- + Reliable
- + Good value
- - Two generations behind
GPT-4o
- + Strong general-purpose
- + Good multimodal
- - Less consistent on coding than Claude
Verdict
GPT-4o wins on both price and performance — $2.50/M input with a benchmark score of 75/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
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 Sonnet
AnthropicPrevious generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.
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.