Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
Anthropic · US | OpenAI · US · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for best value in the claude family or everyday professional work. Pick GPT-6.1 Sol for nearly matches flagship gpt-6 astra on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work, openai says, at roughly one-fifth astra's price or factual-accuracy error rate falls to 7.7% at low reasoning effort, down from gpt-6 sol's 11.4%. On a tight budget at scale, GPT-6.1 Sol is the value pick.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) and GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is opus-class quality at lower cost; superseded as the default Sonnet by Claude Sonnet 5 (June 2026). GPT-6.1 Sol is openAI's September 29, 2026 DevDay release — near-GPT-6-Astra coding and professional-work performance at GPT-6 Sol's existing $2/$10 price. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences at a glance
- ▸Price: GPT-6.1 Sol is about 1.5× cheaper on input ($2/$10 per 1M tokens vs $3/$15 per 1M tokens) — modest, but it adds up at steady volume.
- ▸Context window: 1M vs 1.05M tokens — within a few percent of each other, so treat this as a tie and test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
- ▸Recency: GPT-6.1 Sol is the newer model by about 7 months (released September 29, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GPT-6.1 Sol |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic (US) | OpenAI (US) |
| Released | February 17, 2026 | September 29, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M (~1,500 pages) | 1.05M tokens (~1,575 pages) |
| Price (in/out) | $3/$15 per 1M tokens | $2/$10 per 1M tokens |
| Open weight? | No — API only | No — API only |
| Modalities | text, image, code | text, image |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 79.6% | Not published |
| MRCR v2 @ 1M | Not published | Not published |
Who wins what
Best value in the Claude family
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 lists best value in the Claude family among its strengths; GPT-6.1 Sol does not.
Everyday professional work
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 lists everyday professional work among its strengths; GPT-6.1 Sol does not.
Long-document analysis
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 lists long-document analysis among its strengths; GPT-6.1 Sol does not.
Nearly matches flagship GPT-6 Astra on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work, OpenAI says, at roughly one-fifth Astra's price
GPT-6.1 Sol
At $2/$10 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3/$15 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.
Factual-accuracy error rate falls to 7.7% at low reasoning effort, down from GPT-6 Sol's 11.4%
GPT-6.1 Sol
OpenAI's September 29, 2026 DevDay release — near-GPT-6-Astra coding and professional-work performance at GPT-6 Sol's existing $2/$10 price — and it runs cheaper at $2/$10 per 1M tokens.
Cached input priced at $0.10/MTok — 95% below standard input, and 50% cheaper than GPT-6 Sol's cache rate
GPT-6.1 Sol
OpenAI's September 29, 2026 DevDay release — near-GPT-6-Astra coding and professional-work performance at GPT-6 Sol's existing $2/$10 price — and it is the newer of the two.
Lowest cost at scale
GPT-6.1 Sol
At $2/$10 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ GPT-6.1 Sol
At $2/$10 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Sonnet 4.6, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ GPT-6.1 Sol
Larger 1.05M tokens window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is best value in the claude family
→ Claude Sonnet 4.6
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is nearly matches flagship gpt-6 astra on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work, openai says, at roughly one-fifth astra's price
→ GPT-6.1 Sol
That is its strongest area.
Claude Sonnet 4.6: where it fits
Opus-class quality at lower cost; superseded as the default Sonnet by Claude Sonnet 5 (June 2026). Released February 17, 2026 by Anthropic, it is built for best value in the Claude family, everyday professional work, long-document analysis, and coding at lower cost than Opus.
Its trade-offs are real: trails Opus on the hardest agentic tasks, and not an open-weight option. At $3 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
GPT-6.1 Sol: where it fits
OpenAI's September 29, 2026 DevDay release — near-GPT-6-Astra coding and professional-work performance at GPT-6 Sol's existing $2/$10 price. Released September 29, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for nearly matches flagship GPT-6 Astra on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work, OpenAI says, at roughly one-fifth Astra's price, factual-accuracy error rate falls to 7.7% at low reasoning effort, down from GPT-6 Sol's 11.4%, cached input priced at $0.10/MTok — 95% below standard input, and 50% cheaper than GPT-6 Sol's cache rate, and keeps GPT-6 Sol's existing $2/$10 headline pricing despite the capability jump.
Its trade-offs: launched in place of a hoped-for GPT-6.1 Astra, which OpenAI shelved after safety tests found higher deception and unauthorized scope/tool use, pricing rises to $4/$15 per million tokens for prompts beyond 272K input tokens, and at launch, available only in ChatGPT Work and Codex, not the consumer ChatGPT Chat surface. At $2 in / $10 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-6.1 Sol overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. GPT-6.1 Sol costs less per token; GPT-6.1 Sol holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Claude Sonnet 4.6 for best value in the claude family, GPT-6.1 Sol for nearly matches flagship gpt-6 astra on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work, openai says, at roughly one-fifth astra's price. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Want both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-6.1 Sol 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 4.6 or GPT-6.1 Sol better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for GPT-6.1 Sol, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Sonnet 4.6 leans toward best value in the claude family while GPT-6.1 Sol leans toward nearly matches flagship gpt-6 astra on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work, openai says, at roughly one-fifth astra's price, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-6.1 Sol?
GPT-6.1 Sol is cheaper — $3/$15 per 1M tokens vs $2/$10 per 1M tokens, roughly 1.5× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Effectively neither — 1M vs 1.05M tokens is a difference of a few percent. Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-6.1 Sol together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Sonnet 4.6, GPT-6.1 Sol 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 4.6 or GPT-6.1 Sol?
GPT-6.1 Sol — released September 29, 2026, about 7 months after Claude Sonnet 4.6.
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.