Claude Opus 4.6 vs GPT-4o (11-20)
Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and GPT-4o (11-20) (2024) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1M-token context window, while GPT-4o (11-20) ships a 128K-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing. The goal is to make the tradeoff clear before deeper testing.
Claude Opus 4.6 fits 8x more tokens; pick it for long-context work and GPT-4o (11-20) for tighter calls.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2024-11-20 |
| Context window | 1M | 128K |
| Parameters | — | 1.76T (8x222B MoE)* |
| Architecture | decoder only | mixture of experts |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Opus 4.6 | GPT-4o (11-20) |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | - |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | - |
| Providers | - |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Opus 4.6 | GPT-4o (11-20) |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Function calling | Yes | No |
| Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| 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 Opus 4.6, reasoning mode: Claude Opus 4.6, function calling: Claude Opus 4.6, tool use: Claude Opus 4.6, and structured outputs: Claude Opus 4.6. Both models share vision 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.
Pricing coverage is uneven: Claude Opus 4.6 has $5/1M input tokens and GPT-4o (11-20) has no token price sourced yet. Provider availability is 4 tracked routes versus 0. Treat unknown pricing as an integration gap, then verify the route you will actually call before estimating production spend.
Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when coding workflow support, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose GPT-4o (11-20) when coding workflow support 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. It also helps separate model capability from provider packaging, which can change cost and latency.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.6 or GPT-4o (11-20)?
Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1M tokens, while GPT-4o (11-20) supports 128K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Is Claude Opus 4.6 or GPT-4o (11-20) open source?
Claude Opus 4.6 is listed under Proprietary. GPT-4o (11-20) 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 Opus 4.6 or GPT-4o (11-20)?
Both Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-4o (11-20) expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude Opus 4.6 or GPT-4o (11-20)?
Claude Opus 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.
Which is better for reasoning mode, Claude Opus 4.6 or GPT-4o (11-20)?
Claude Opus 4.6 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 Opus 4.6 and GPT-4o (11-20)?
Claude Opus 4.6 is available on OpenRouter, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI. GPT-4o (11-20) is available on the tracked providers still being sourced. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.