Claude 4.6Released 2026-02-17
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Best balance of intelligence, speed, and cost with 1M context window
Family
Claude 4.6
Release Date
2026-02-17
Best For
General coding, analysis, content creation, interactive applications
Overview
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the recommended default model for most production workloads. It offers an exceptional balance of intelligence, speed, and cost with a 1M token context window — all at the same $3/$15 pricing as previous Sonnet generations. With 64K max output tokens, it excels at generating detailed code, long-form content, and comprehensive analyses. The right choice for the majority of use cases.
Pricing
Input / 1M tokens
$3.00
Output / 1M tokens
$15.00
Context Window
1000K
Max Output
64K
API model ID:
claude-sonnet-4-6Key Features
✓1M token context window at standard pricing
✓64K token max output — largest in the Claude lineup
✓Near-Opus 4.6 intelligence at 5x lower cost
✓Excellent coding and analytical capabilities
✓Improved response speed and conversational flow
✓Ideal for both batch and real-time interactive use cases
Use Cases
General-purpose coding, debugging, and refactoring
Content creation and copywriting at scale
Data analysis and comprehensive report generation
Customer-facing chatbots and AI assistants
API-powered applications requiring reliability
Document summarization and in-depth Q&A
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
| Graduate-Level Reasoning (GPQA) | 78.5% |
| Coding (SWE-bench Verified) | 79.6% |
| Multilingual Math (MGSM) | 95.8% |
| MMLU (5-shot) | 90.1% |
| OSWorld-Verified | Major improvement |
| OfficeQA | Matches Opus 4.6 |