Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-4o-mini Search Preview
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2026) and GPT-4o-mini Search Preview (2025) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Claude Sonnet 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while GPT-4o-mini Search Preview ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, GPT-4o-mini Search Preview costs $0.15/1M input tokens versus $3/1M 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-mini Search Preview is ~1900% cheaper at $0.15/1M; pay for Claude Sonnet 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-4o-mini Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | RAG, Long context, and Classification |
| Context window | 1m | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $15/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- GPT-4o-mini Search Preview has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.60/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags GPT-4o-mini 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 Sonnet 4.6
$6,150
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
GPT-4o-mini Search Preview
$270
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $5,880. 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.
- GPT-4o-mini Search Preview is $14.40/1M 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 and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is $14.40/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-17 | 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 | 2025-08 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-4o-mini Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.15/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-4o-mini 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 | Yes | No |
| Parallel agents | Yes | 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.