LLM Reference

Claude Opus 4.6 vs GPT-4o (08-06)

Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and GPT-4o (08-06) (2024) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while GPT-4o (08-06) ships a 128k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Opus 4.6 leads by 14.4 pts. On pricing, GPT-4o (08-06) costs $2.50/1M input tokens versus $5/1M 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.

GPT-4o (08-06) is ~100% cheaper at $2.50/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalClaude Opus 4.6GPT-4o (08-06)
Best forreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agentsmultimodal apps and provider-routed production
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsCoding, RAG, and Agents
Context window1m128k
Cheapest output$25/1M tokens$10/1M tokens
Provider routes6 tracked3 tracked
Shared benchmarksMMLU PRO leader2 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when...
  • Claude Opus 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 14.4 points.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 uniquely exposes Reasoning and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose GPT-4o (08-06) when...
  • GPT-4o (08-06) has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $10/1M tokens.
  • Local decision data tags GPT-4o (08-06) 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.

Lower estimate GPT-4o (08-06)

Claude Opus 4.6

$10,250

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic

GPT-4o (08-06)

$4,500

Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenAI API

Estimated monthly gap: $5,750. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Claude Opus 4.6 -> GPT-4o (08-06)
  • Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • GPT-4o (08-06) is $15/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Reasoning and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
GPT-4o (08-06) -> Claude Opus 4.6
  • Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 is $15/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 adds Reasoning and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2026-02-052024-08-06
Context window1m128k
Parameters—1.76T (8x222B MoE)*
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyMixture of Experts
LicenseProprietaryProprietary
OpennessProprietaryProprietary
WeightsNot releasedNot released
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2025-122023-10

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeClaude Opus 4.6GPT-4o (08-06)
Input price$5/1M tokens$2.50/1M tokens
Output price$25/1M tokens$10/1M tokens
Providers
AnthropicAWS BedrockGCP Vertex AIMicrosoft FoundryOpenRouterVercel AI Gateway
OpenAI APISalesforce Einstein Generative AIOpenRouter

Capabilities

CapabilityClaude Opus 4.6GPT-4o (08-06)
VisionYesYes
MultimodalYesYes
ReasoningYesNo
JSON / Tool useYesNo
Structured outputsYesYes
Code executionYesYes
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.6GPT-4o (08-06)
MMLU PRO89.174.7
Aider Polyglot72.023.1

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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.