Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude 3.7 Sonnet (2024) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic. Claude 3.7 Sonnet ships a 200K-token context window, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 ships a 1M-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads by 7 pts. On pricing, Claude 3.7 Sonnet costs $3/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for general evaluation; Claude 3.7 Sonnet is better when coding workflow support matters more.
Specs
| Released | 2024-03-04 | 2026-02-17 |
| Context window | 200K | 1M |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-11 | 2025-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Claude 3.7 Sonnet | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $3/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $15/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Claude 3.7 Sonnet | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Multimodal | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Function calling | ||
| Tool use | ||
| Structured outputs | ||
| Code execution |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.7 Sonnet | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 80.3 | 87.3 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 70.3 | 79.6 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, MMLU PRO has Claude 3.7 Sonnet at 80.3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 at 87.3, with Claude Sonnet 4.6 ahead by 7 points; SWE-bench Verified has Claude 3.7 Sonnet at 70.3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 at 79.6, with Claude Sonnet 4.6 ahead by 9.3 points. The largest visible gap is 9.3 points on SWE-bench Verified, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint is close: both models cover vision, multimodal input, reasoning mode, function calling, and tool use. That makes context budget, benchmark fit, and provider maturity more important than a simple checklist. If your application depends on one integration detail, verify it against the provider route you plan to use, not just the base model listing.
For cost, Claude 3.7 Sonnet lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Claude 3.7 Sonnet lower by about $0 per million blended tokens. Availability is 6 providers versus 4, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.7 Sonnet when coding workflow support and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 when coding workflow support and larger context windows are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 1M tokens, while Claude 3.7 Sonnet supports 200K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.7 Sonnet costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6 open source?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet is listed under Proprietary. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is listed under Proprietary. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Both Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6 expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude 3.7 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Both Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6 expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Where can I run Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet is available on Snowflake Cortex, GCP Vertex AI, Replicate API, OpenRouter, and AWS Bedrock. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available on OpenRouter, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.