Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Compare Anthropic and Anthropic AI models
Cost Comparison (1000 input + 500 output tokens, 100 requests/day)
Claude Haiku 4.5
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Cost Differences
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs more than Claude Haiku 4.5
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Input Price | $1.00/1M tokens | $3.00/1M tokens |
| Output Price | $5.00/1M tokens | $15.00/1M tokens |
| Context Window | 200,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max Output | 64,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Category | efficient | balanced |
| Capabilities | textvision | textvisioncodereasoningcomputer-use |
| Release Date | 10/15/2025 | 2/18/2026 |
Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Which Should You Choose?
Choosing between Claude Haiku 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 depends on your priorities: cost efficiency, context length, or raw capability. Claude Haiku 4.5 is the more affordable option at $1.00/1M input tokens — 67% cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.6. Meanwhile, Claude Sonnet 4.6 offers a significantly larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens vs 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5.
These models target different tiers: Claude Haiku 4.5 is a efficient model while Claude Sonnet 4.6 is balanced. This means they're optimized for different workloads. Claude Sonnet 4.6 targets more demanding workloads, while Claude Haiku 4.5 provides a cost-effective option for everyday tasks.
Output costs matter too. Claude Haiku 4.5 charges $5.00/1M output tokens vs $15.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6. For generation-heavy workloads (content creation, code generation, summarization), output pricing often dominates your bill. Claude Haiku 4.5 has the edge here at $5.00/1M output tokens.
Multimodal capabilities: Both models support vision (image understanding), so you can send images alongside text prompts with either option.
Best Use Cases
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 when:
- • Budget is a primary concern
- • You're already using Anthropic's API ecosystem
- • You're running high-volume, latency-sensitive workloads
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 when:
- • You need a larger context window (1,000,000 tokens)
- • You need more capabilities (code, reasoning, computer-use)
- • You need longer outputs (up to 65,536 tokens)
- • You're already using Anthropic's API ecosystem
Try Different Scenarios
Use the calculator below to see how costs change with different usage patterns
Claude Haiku 4.5 (Anthropic)
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic)
Start using Claude Haiku 4.5 today
Sign Up for Anthropic →Start using Claude Sonnet 4.6 today
Sign Up for Anthropic →