Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
Claude 3.5 Sonnet (2024) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and AI at Meta. Claude 3.5 Sonnet ships a 200K-token context window, while Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct ships a not-yet-sourced context window. On Chatbot Arena, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct leads by 25 pts. On pricing, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.24/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is ~1150% cheaper at $0.24/1M; pay for Claude 3.5 Sonnet only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-06-20 | 2026-01-01 |
| Context window | 200K | — |
| Parameters | 70B | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | - |
| License | Unknown | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.24/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.97/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Function calling | Yes | No |
| Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot Arena | 1340.0 | 1365.0 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, Chatbot Arena has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 1340 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct at 1365, with Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct ahead by 25 points. The largest visible gap is 25 points on Chatbot Arena, 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 differs most on vision: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, reasoning mode: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, function calling: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and code execution: Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Both models share multimodal input and structured outputs, 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 Sonnet lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct lists $0.24/1M input and $0.97/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct lower by about $6.14 per million blended tokens. Availability is 6 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when coding workflow support and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct when provider fit and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.24/1M input and $0.97/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct open source?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is listed under Unknown. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Which is better for reasoning mode, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the clearer documented reasoning mode signal in this comparison. If reasoning mode 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 Sonnet and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenRouter, and Microsoft Foundry. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is available on AWS Bedrock. 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.