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Claude Sonnet 4.6

Balanced

The default daily driver for agents — most of Opus's quality at a fraction of the price.

Anthropic
Maker
91/100
Overall
46
Value score
$6.60
Blended /1M
1M
Context
Proprietary
Weights
Pricing: $3.00 in · $15 out / 1M tokens · synced from OpenRouter · updated 2026-06-22

Scorecard

Output Quality9.1/10 · 78% community
Agentic Ability9.2/10 · 78% community
Speed8.0/10 · 73% community
Value for $8.0/10 · 72% community
Reliability9.4/10 · 79% community

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the workhorse of the Claude line and one of the most popular models for everyday agent use. It captures most of Opus's coding ability at roughly half the input price and noticeably faster, which is why many agents default to it and escalate to Opus only when needed. The 1M-token context matches the flagship.

Strengths
  • Near-flagship quality at a much lower price
  • Fast enough for interactive agent loops
  • 1M-token context
Trade-offs
  • Still steps behind Opus on the very hardest tasks
  • Pricier than open-weight models of similar quality

Agents that run Sonnet 4.6 well

The everyday agent default — strong quality without the flagship price.

Best model for Claude CodeBest model for ClineBest model for AiderBest model for CursorBest model for OpenCodeBest model for OpenClaw

Claude Sonnet 4.6 FAQ

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 good for AI agents?
The everyday agent default — strong quality without the flagship price. On our editorial scoring it rates 9.2/10 for agentic ability and 9.1/10 for output quality. Near-flagship quality at a much lower price.
How much does Claude Sonnet 4.6 cost?
Via OpenRouter, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is priced at $3.00 in · $15 out / 1M tokens — a blended rate of about $6.60 per 1M tokens for typical input-heavy agent use.
What is Claude Sonnet 4.6's context window?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a 1M-token context window — large enough to hold sizeable codebases or document sets in a single run. Anthropic is the maker.
Can I self-host Claude Sonnet 4.6?
No — Claude Sonnet 4.6 is a proprietary, hosted-only model from Anthropic. You access it through an API (e.g. OpenRouter) rather than running the weights yourself.
What are the downsides of Claude Sonnet 4.6?
The main trade-offs: still steps behind opus on the very hardest tasks; pricier than open-weight models of similar quality. It's strongest for the everyday agent default — strong quality without the flagship price.

Sonnet 4.6 compared

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The model is half the story — the agent is the other half

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