Claude 3.5 Haiku vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude 3.5 Haiku (2024) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic. Claude 3.5 Haiku ships a 200k-token context window, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 ships a 1M-token context window. On pricing, Claude 3.5 Haiku costs $0.8/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
Claude 3.5 Haiku is ~275% cheaper at $0.8/1M; pay for Claude Sonnet 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-10-22 | 2026-02-17 |
| Context window | 200k | 1M |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | 2025-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude 3.5 Haiku | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.8/1M tokens | $3/1M tokens |
| Output price | $4/1M tokens | $15/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude 3.5 Haiku | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Function calling | No | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | Yes |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on multimodal input: Claude Sonnet 4.6, function calling: Claude Sonnet 4.6, and tool use: Claude Sonnet 4.6. Both models share vision, reasoning mode, structured outputs, and code execution, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude 3.5 Haiku lists $0.8/1M input and $4/1M 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 3.5 Haiku lower by about $4.84 per million blended tokens. Availability is 5 providers versus 4, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.5 Haiku when coding workflow support, lower input-token cost, 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. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude 3.5 Haiku or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 1M tokens, while Claude 3.5 Haiku 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 3.5 Haiku or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude 3.5 Haiku is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.5 Haiku costs $0.8/1M input and $4/1M 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 3.5 Haiku or Claude Sonnet 4.6 open source?
Claude 3.5 Haiku is listed under Unknown. 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 3.5 Haiku or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Both Claude 3.5 Haiku 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 3.5 Haiku or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Claude 3.5 Haiku and Claude Sonnet 4.6?
Claude 3.5 Haiku is available on Anthropic, OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, and Replicate API. 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.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.