Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Hunyuan Hy4
Anthropic · US | Tencent · China · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 for agentic coding — 77.2% on swe-bench verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch or computer use and gui automation (61.4% osworld at launch). Pick Hunyuan Hy4 for first hunyuan model with vision and computer use, adding image input to the text-only hy4 preview or tencent-reported gains over the preview of 19.1% on gamedev and 9.8% on gamelogic. On a tight budget at scale, Hunyuan Hy4 is the value pick.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic, US) and Hunyuan Hy4 (Tencent, China) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is september 2025's coding state of the art at $3/$15 — still supported, but 200K-capped and twice superseded. Hunyuan Hy4 is tencent's November 4, 2026 full Hy4 release - a 1M-context model that adds vision and computer use at about $0.90/$2.70, with weights promised but not yet public. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences at a glance
- ▸Price: Hunyuan Hy4 is about 3.3× cheaper on input ($0.9/$2.7 per 1M tokens vs $3/$15 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
- ▸Context window: Hunyuan Hy4 holds 5.2× more — 1M tokens (~1,573 pages) vs 200K (~300 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
- ▸Recency: Hunyuan Hy4 is the newer model by about 13 months (released November 4, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
- ▸Ecosystem: this is a US-vs-China matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Hunyuan Hy4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic (US) | Tencent (China) |
| Released | September 29, 2025 | November 4, 2026 |
| Context window | 200K (~300 pages) | 1M tokens (~1,573 pages) |
| Price (in/out) | $3/$15 per 1M tokens | $0.9/$2.7 per 1M tokens |
| Open weight? | No — API only | No — API only |
| Modalities | text, image, code | text, image, code |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 77.2% | Not published |
| MRCR v2 @ 1M | Not published | Not published |
Who wins what
Agentic coding — 77.2% on SWE-Bench Verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Hunyuan Hy4 is comparatively weak here — published improvements are Tencent's own and mostly relative to the preview, with no SWE-bench Verified figure
Computer use and GUI automation (61.4% OSWorld at launch)
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Claude Sonnet 4.5 lists computer use and GUI automation (61.4% OSWorld at launch) among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 does not.
Long-horizon autonomy — Anthropic reported 30+ hours of sustained focus on multi-step tasks
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Claude Sonnet 4.5 lists long-horizon autonomy — Anthropic reported 30+ hours of sustained focus on multi-step tasks among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 does not.
First Hunyuan model with vision and computer use, adding image input to the text-only Hy4 Preview
Hunyuan Hy4
Tencent's November 4, 2026 full Hy4 release - a 1M-context model that adds vision and computer use at about $0.90/$2.70, with weights promised but not yet public — and it runs cheaper at $0.9/$2.7 per 1M tokens.
Tencent-reported gains over the preview of 19.1% on GameDev and 9.8% on GameLogic
Hunyuan Hy4
Tencent's November 4, 2026 full Hy4 release - a 1M-context model that adds vision and computer use at about $0.90/$2.70, with weights promised but not yet public — and it carries the larger 1M tokens context.
Tencent-reported financial evaluation of 3.04, ahead of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 at 2.97
Hunyuan Hy4
Tencent's November 4, 2026 full Hy4 release - a 1M-context model that adds vision and computer use at about $0.90/$2.70, with weights promised but not yet public — and it is the newer of the two.
Lowest cost at scale
Hunyuan Hy4
At $0.9/$2.7 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Largest single-prompt input
Hunyuan Hy4
Its 1M tokens window is about 5.2× larger than Claude Sonnet 4.5's 200K, fitting roughly 1,573 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ Hunyuan Hy4
At $0.9/$2.7 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Sonnet 4.5, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ Hunyuan Hy4
Larger 1M tokens window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is agentic coding — 77.2% on swe-bench verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch
→ Claude Sonnet 4.5
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is first hunyuan model with vision and computer use, adding image input to the text-only hy4 preview
→ Hunyuan Hy4
That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules
→ Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Hunyuan Hy4
Origin (US vs China) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Claude Sonnet 4.5: where it fits
September 2025's coding state of the art at $3/$15 — still supported, but 200K-capped and twice superseded. Released September 29, 2025 by Anthropic, it is built for agentic coding — 77.2% on SWE-Bench Verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch, computer use and GUI automation (61.4% OSWorld at launch), long-horizon autonomy — Anthropic reported 30+ hours of sustained focus on multi-step tasks, and tracking its own remaining token budget natively, which few models do.
Its trade-offs are real: superseded twice — Sonnet 4.6 and Sonnet 5 match or beat it at the same or lower price, capped at 200K since Anthropic retired its 1M beta in April 2026, while its successors ship 1M as standard, and missing the modern API surface: no adaptive thinking, no effort control, and half the max output of newer Sonnets. At $3 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
Hunyuan Hy4: where it fits
Tencent's November 4, 2026 full Hy4 release - a 1M-context model that adds vision and computer use at about $0.90/$2.70, with weights promised but not yet public. Released November 4, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for first Hunyuan model with vision and computer use, adding image input to the text-only Hy4 Preview, tencent-reported gains over the preview of 19.1% on GameDev and 9.8% on GameLogic, tencent-reported financial evaluation of 3.04, ahead of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 at 2.97, and about $0.90/$2.70 per million tokens, with 50% off on Tencent Cloud TokenHub through December 31, 2026 (OpenRouter lists $0.417/$1.25 with that discount).
Its trade-offs: weights not public as of November 5, 2026 - Tencent says weights and system cards will come in the coming days, and no license is announced yet, only the earlier Hy4 Preview is downloadable today (Apache 2.0), published improvements are Tencent's own and mostly relative to the preview, with no SWE-bench Verified figure, and sources differ on list price: Tencent says about $0.90/$2.70, while OpenRouter and Vals show $0.83/$2.50. At $0.9 in / $2.7 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." Claude Sonnet 4.5 (US) and Hunyuan Hy4 (China) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. Hunyuan Hy4 is the cheaper option, which matters at volume. The pragmatic move is to run one real task through both and judge the outputs against your own constraints — including where your data is allowed to be processed.
Want both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Hunyuan Hy4 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
See pricingFrequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Hunyuan Hy4 better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for Hunyuan Hy4, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Sonnet 4.5 leans toward agentic coding — 77.2% on swe-bench verified, the best score any model had posted at its launch while Hunyuan Hy4 leans toward first hunyuan model with vision and computer use, adding image input to the text-only hy4 preview, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Hunyuan Hy4?
Hunyuan Hy4 is cheaper — $3/$15 per 1M tokens vs $0.9/$2.7 per 1M tokens, roughly 3.3× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hunyuan Hy4 — 1M tokens vs 200K, about 5.2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Hunyuan Hy4 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Sonnet 4.5, Hunyuan Hy4 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Hunyuan Hy4?
Hunyuan Hy4 — released November 4, 2026, about 13 months after Claude Sonnet 4.5.
Related comparisons
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.