Claude Opus 4.6 vs o3 Mini
Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and o3 Mini (2025) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while o3 Mini ships a 200k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Opus 4.6 leads by 10 pts. On pricing, o3 Mini costs $1.10/1M 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.
o3 Mini is ~355% cheaper at $1.10/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Opus 4.6 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | reasoning-heavy apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 1m | 200k |
| Cheapest output | $25/1M tokens | $4.40/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 4 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | MMLU PRO leader | 5 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Opus 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 10 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 Vision and Multimodal in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- o3 Mini has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $4.40/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags o3 Mini 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 Opus 4.6
$10,250
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic
o3 Mini
$1,980
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $8,270. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- o3 Mini is $20.60/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision and Multimodal before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Opus 4.6 is $20.60/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Opus 4.6 adds Vision and Multimodal in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2025-01-31 |
| Context window | 1m | 200k |
| 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 | 2025-04 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Opus 4.6 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | $1.10/1M tokens |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | $4.40/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Opus 4.6 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| 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 Opus 4.6 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 89.1 | 79.1 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.8 | 49.3 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 91.3 | 79.7 |
| Chatbot Arena | 1501.0 | 1335.0 |
| Aider Polyglot | 72.0 | 60.4 |
Continue comparing
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- Claude Opus 4.6 vs GLM-5.1
- GPT-5.5 vs o3 Mini
- Grok 4 vs o3 Mini
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Hunyuan Hy3 Preview
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Composer 2.5
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.