Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs GPT-4 Vision Preview
Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2025) and GPT-4 Vision Preview (2023) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Sonnet 4.5 ships a 200K-token context window, while GPT-4 Vision Preview ships a 128K-token context window. On Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads by 21.8 pts. On pricing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3/1M input tokens versus $10/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is ~233% cheaper at $3/1M; pay for GPT-4 Vision Preview only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-09-29 | 2023-11-06 |
| Context window | 200K | 128K |
| Parameters | — | 1.76T (8x222B MoE)* |
| Architecture | decoder only | mixture of experts |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | 2023-04 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | GPT-4 Vision Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $10/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $40/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | GPT-4 Vision Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Function calling | Yes | No |
| Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | No | Yes |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | GPT-4 Vision Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding | 77.8 | 56.0 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding has Claude Sonnet 4.5 at 77.8 and GPT-4 Vision Preview at 56, with Claude Sonnet 4.5 ahead by 21.8 points. The largest visible gap is 21.8 points on Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding, 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 differs most on reasoning mode: Claude Sonnet 4.5, function calling: Claude Sonnet 4.5, tool use: Claude Sonnet 4.5, structured outputs: Claude Sonnet 4.5, and code execution: GPT-4 Vision Preview. Both models share vision and multimodal input, 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.
For cost, Claude Sonnet 4.5 lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while GPT-4 Vision Preview lists $10/1M input and $40/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Claude Sonnet 4.5 lower by about $12.40 per million blended tokens. Availability is 7 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 when reasoning depth, larger context windows, and lower input-token cost are central to the workload. Choose GPT-4 Vision Preview 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.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or GPT-4 Vision Preview?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K tokens, while GPT-4 Vision Preview supports 128K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or GPT-4 Vision Preview?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. GPT-4 Vision Preview costs $10/1M input and $40/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 or GPT-4 Vision Preview open source?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is listed under Proprietary. GPT-4 Vision Preview 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 Sonnet 4.5 or GPT-4 Vision Preview?
Both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and GPT-4 Vision Preview expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or GPT-4 Vision Preview?
Both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and GPT-4 Vision Preview expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Where can I run Claude Sonnet 4.5 and GPT-4 Vision Preview?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is available on Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic, Snowflake Cortex, GCP Vertex AI, and AWS Bedrock. GPT-4 Vision Preview is available on Azure OpenAI. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.