Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Claude 3.5 Haiku
Side-by-side comparison of Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) and Claude 3.5 Haiku (Anthropic). Exact API pricing per million tokens, context windows, output speed, and total cost on real-world prompts.
Specifications
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude 3.5 Haiku |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Model id | claude-sonnet-4.6 | claude-3.5-haiku |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $3.00 | $0.80 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $15.00 | $4.00 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 200,000 |
| Output speed (tokens/sec) | ~90 | ~120 |
Cost on real prompts
Total cost = (input tokens × input price) + (output tokens × output price). Numbers below use the exact pricing tables published by each provider.
| Scenario | Input | Output | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Claude 3.5 Haiku | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short question + answer | 50 | 150 | $0.002400 | $0.00064 | Claude 3.5 Haiku |
| Code review on one file | 500 | 1,500 | $0.024000 | $0.006400 | Claude 3.5 Haiku |
| Long document summary | 5,000 | 500 | $0.022500 | $0.006000 | Claude 3.5 Haiku |
| Heavy reasoning task | 2,000 | 8,000 | $0.126000 | $0.033600 | Claude 3.5 Haiku |
| Full codebase analysis | 50,000 | 10,000 | $0.300000 | $0.080000 | Claude 3.5 Haiku |
Want the exact cost for your prompt instead of these examples? Open the cost calculator pre-loaded with both models →
When to pick which
Heuristics derived from the spec table above. Always validate on your own prompts before committing — these are starting points, not verdicts.
Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for
- •tasks needing a larger context window — claude-sonnet-4.6 fits 5x more tokens than claude-3.5-haiku
Pick Claude 3.5 Haiku for
- •output-heavy workloads — claude-3.5-haiku is meaningfully cheaper per output token
- •input-heavy workloads — claude-3.5-haiku is cheaper per input token
- •latency-sensitive UX — claude-3.5-haiku streams faster (~120 vs ~90 tok/s)
Switching between them
For most use cases, switching providers means updating the model id and the request shape if the providers differ. Within the same provider, it's usually a single-line change.
From Claude Sonnet 4.6 to Claude 3.5 Haiku
# Before
model = "claude-sonnet-4.6"
# After
model = "claude-3.5-haiku"If the providers differ (Anthropic vs Anthropic), you'll also need to swap the SDK / endpoint URL. Cross-provider migrations usually take 30 minutes to a few hours depending on how many features (streaming, function calling, tool use) you depend on.
Calculate cost on your own prompt
The examples above use generic input/output ratios. For an exact comparison, paste your real prompt into the calculator — it counts tokens with the right tokenizer for each model and shows side-by-side cost.
Open the calculator with both models →