LLM Reference

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs MAI-Thinking-1

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the production workhorse with broad API and JSON / Tool use availability. MAI-Thinking-1 is Microsoft's new reasoning preview, with strong AIME, LiveCodeBench, SWE-bench Pro, and Microsoft-reported human preference evidence against Sonnet.

Pick Sonnet 4.6 for production systems, broader provider maturity, and stronger tracked SWE-bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0, and GPQA rows. Test MAI-Thinking-1 when Microsoft ecosystem fit or reasoning-preview performance matters, especially if the Surge blind evaluation and MAI's 97% AIME 2025 / 94.5% AIME 2026 rows match your workload shape.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalClaude Sonnet 4.6MAI-Thinking-1
Best forreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agentsreasoning-heavy apps and tool-calling agents
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsCoding, RAG, and Agents
Context window1m256k
Cheapest output$15/1M tokens-
Provider routes6 tracked1 tracked
Shared benchmarksMMLU PRO leader7 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 when...
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 2.3 points.
  • 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 Structured outputs in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose MAI-Thinking-1 when...
  • MAI-Thinking-1 holds a shared-benchmark lead on AIME 2025, ahead by 3 points.
  • Local decision data tags MAI-Thinking-1 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 Sonnet 4.6

$6,150

Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter

MAI-Thinking-1

Unavailable

No complete token price in local provider data

Cost delta unavailable until both models have sourced input and output token prices.

Switch friction

Claude Sonnet 4.6 -> MAI-Thinking-1
  • Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
MAI-Thinking-1 -> Claude Sonnet 4.6
  • Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Structured outputs in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2026-02-172026-06-02
Context window1m256k
Parameters—1T total / 35B active
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyMixture of Experts
LicenseProprietaryProprietary
OpennessProprietaryProprietary
WeightsNot releasedNot released
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2025-08-

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeClaude Sonnet 4.6MAI-Thinking-1
Input price$3/1M tokens-
Output price$15/1M tokens-
Providers
OpenRouterAnthropicAWS BedrockGCP Vertex AIMicrosoft FoundryVercel AI Gateway
Microsoft Foundry

Capabilities

CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4.6MAI-Thinking-1
VisionYesNo
MultimodalYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
JSON / Tool useYesYes
Structured outputsYesNo
Code executionYesNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useYesNo
Parallel agentsYesNo

Benchmarks

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6MAI-Thinking-1
MMLU PRO87.385.0
SWE-bench Verified79.673.5
Google-Proof Q&A89.984.2
AIME 202594.097.0
LiveCodeBench80.087.7
Terminal-Bench 2.059.146.0
MultiChallenge57.153.0

Continue comparing

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.