Claude Opus 4.6 vs GPT-4o Search Preview
Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and GPT-4o Search Preview (2025) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while GPT-4o Search Preview ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, GPT-4o Search Preview 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 Search Preview is ~100% cheaper at $2.50/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Opus 4.6 | GPT-4o Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | general production evaluation |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | RAG, Long context, and Classification |
| Context window | 1m | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $25/1M tokens | $10/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 1 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- 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 Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- GPT-4o Search Preview has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $10/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags GPT-4o Search Preview for RAG, Long context, and Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Claude Opus 4.6
$10,250
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic
GPT-4o Search Preview
$4,500
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $5,750. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- GPT-4o Search Preview is $15/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning before moving production traffic.
- 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 Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2025-02-26 |
| Context window | 1m | 128k |
| 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 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Opus 4.6 | GPT-4o Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | $2.50/1M tokens |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | $10/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Opus 4.6 | GPT-4o Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.