Claude Mythos Preview vs Claude Opus 4.6
Claude Mythos Preview (2026) and Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic. Claude Mythos Preview ships a 1m-token context window, while Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window. On SWE-bench Verified, Claude Mythos Preview leads by 13.1 pts. On pricing, Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5/1M input tokens versus $25/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Claude Opus 4.6 is ~400% cheaper at $5/1M; pay for Claude Mythos Preview only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Mythos Preview | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 1m | 1m |
| Cheapest output | $125/1M tokens | $25/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 2 tracked | 6 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | SWE-bench Verified leader | 3 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Mythos Preview holds a shared-benchmark lead on SWE-bench Verified, ahead by 13.1 points.
- Local decision data tags Claude Mythos Preview for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Claude Opus 4.6 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $25/1M tokens.
- Claude Opus 4.6 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Claude Mythos Preview
$51,250
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
$10,250
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic
Estimated monthly gap: $41,000. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Anthropic and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Opus 4.6 is $100/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Provider overlap exists on Anthropic and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Mythos Preview is $100/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-05-01 | 2026-02-05 |
| Context window | 1m | 1m |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Openness | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Weights | Not released | Not released |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | 2025-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Mythos Preview | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $25/1M tokens | $5/1M tokens |
| Output price | $125/1M tokens | $25/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Mythos Preview | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | Yes |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Mythos Preview | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 93.9 | 80.8 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 94.6 | 91.3 |
| τ-bench | 89.2 | 84.8 |
Continue comparing
- Claude Mythos Preview vs Phi-4 Mini Flash Reasoning
- Claude Mythos Preview vs Grok 4
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs GLM-5.1
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
- Claude Mythos Preview vs GPT-5.5
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Hunyuan Hy3 Preview
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Composer 2.5
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash
Popular comparisons for Claude Mythos Preview
Popular comparisons for Claude Opus 4.6
Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.