Last refreshed 2026-07-26. Next refresh: weekly.
Why use Claude Sonnet 4.6 on GCP Vertex AI?
GCP Vertex AI offers Claude Sonnet 4.6 with pay-as-you-go pricing at $3.00/1M input tokens. Vertex AI is Google Cloud's managed AI platform, offering access to Gemini models and hundreds of partner models alongside tools for fine-tuning, grounding, vector search, and end-to-end MLOps pipelines.
Compare Claude Sonnet 4.6 across 6 providers to find the best fit for your use caseInput / 1M
$3.00
Output / 1M
$15.00
Cache
Not sourced
Batch
Not sourced
Setup recipe
Python + curlInstall
pip install google-cloud-aiplatformAuth
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=...Call
import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")Model ID
claude-sonnet-4-6Request example
import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
# Reads GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT from env; authenticates via Application Default Credentials
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")
model = GenerativeModel("claude-sonnet-4-6")
response = model.generate_content("Hello")
print(response.text)Gotchas
- For Google-published models use the model name directly, e.g. "gemini-2.0-flash-001". For third-party publishers (Anthropic, Meta, etc.) use the full publisher path, e.g. "publishers/anthropic/models/claude-3-5-sonnet-v2@20241022".
- The examples expect GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT; rename it only if your application config maps the new variable.
Compare Claude Sonnet 4.6 Across Providers
| Provider | Input (per 1M) | Output (per 1M) |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| AWS Bedrock | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| GCP Vertex AI | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Microsoft Foundry | $3.00 | $15.00 |
Pricing
| Type | Price (per 1M) |
|---|---|
| Input tokens | $3.00 |
| Output tokens | $15.00 |
Capabilities
VisionMultimodalReasoningJSON / Tool useStructured OutputsCode ExecutionPrompt CachingBatch API
About Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is Anthropic's best combination of speed and intelligence. Proprietary decoder-only model with 1M-token context, 64K max output, multimodal vision, extended thinking, and function calling. Available via Anthropic API, AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, and OpenRouter at $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens.
Model Specs
Released2026-02-17
Context1m
ArchitectureDecoder Only
Knowledge cutoff2025-08