Claude Opus 4.6 vs o4-mini
Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and o4-mini (2025) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1M-token context window, while o4-mini ships a not-yet-sourced context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Opus 4.6 leads by 5.9 pts. On pricing, o4-mini costs $0.5/1M input tokens versus $5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
o4-mini is ~900% cheaper at $0.5/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2025-04-16 |
| Context window | 1M | — |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | 2025-08 |
Pricing and availability
| Claude Opus 4.6 | o4-mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | $0.5/1M tokens |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | $2/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Claude Opus 4.6 | o4-mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Multimodal | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Function calling | ||
| Tool use | ||
| Structured outputs | ||
| Code execution |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 89.1 | 83.2 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.8 | 68.1 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, MMLU PRO has Claude Opus 4.6 at 89.1 and o4-mini at 83.2, with Claude Opus 4.6 ahead by 5.9 points; SWE-bench Verified has Claude Opus 4.6 at 80.8 and o4-mini at 68.1, with Claude Opus 4.6 ahead by 12.7 points. The largest visible gap is 12.7 points on SWE-bench Verified, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint is close: both models cover vision, multimodal input, reasoning mode, function calling, and tool use. That makes context budget, benchmark fit, and provider maturity more important than a simple checklist. If your application depends on one integration detail, verify it against the provider route you plan to use, not just the base model listing.
For cost, Claude Opus 4.6 lists $5/1M input and $25/1M output tokens, while o4-mini lists $0.5/1M input and $2/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts o4-mini lower by about $10.05 per million blended tokens. Availability is 4 providers versus 4, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when coding workflow support are central to the workload. Choose o4-mini when coding workflow support and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or o4-mini?
o4-mini is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5/1M input and $25/1M output tokens. o4-mini costs $0.5/1M input and $2/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude Opus 4.6 or o4-mini open source?
Claude Opus 4.6 is listed under Proprietary. o4-mini 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 o4-mini?
Both Claude Opus 4.6 and o4-mini 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 o4-mini?
Both Claude Opus 4.6 and o4-mini expose multimodal input. 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 reasoning mode, Claude Opus 4.6 or o4-mini?
Both Claude Opus 4.6 and o4-mini expose reasoning mode. 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.
Where can I run Claude Opus 4.6 and o4-mini?
Claude Opus 4.6 is available on OpenRouter, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI. o4-mini is available on OpenAI API, OpenRouter, OpenAI Batch API, and Replicate API. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.