Leaderboard · Compare · Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-4.1 · Updated
Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-4.1
Claude Sonnet 4 edges out GPT-4.1 on the composite (80.7 vs 74.5). The gap is meaningful but not decisive — see the per-benchmark breakdown below.
At a glance
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4 | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| Released | 2025-05 | 2025-04 |
| Tier | general-purpose | general-purpose |
| License | Closed | Closed |
| Context window | 200k | 1M |
| $ in / out (per 1M) | $3.00 / $15.00 | $2.00 / $8.00 |
Benchmark scoreboard
Higher is better on every benchmark. Δ shows Claude Sonnet 4 − GPT-4.1.
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4 | GPT-4.1 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chatbot Arena Elo | 1370 | 1380 | -10 |
| MMLU-Pro | 84.0 | 80.1 | +3.9 |
| GPQA Diamond | 75.4 | 66.3 | +9.1 |
| MATH | 93.0 | 87.0 | +6.0 |
| HumanEval | 93.7 | 92.0 | +1.7 |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 72.7 | 54.6 | +18.1 |
Numbers compiled from provider technical reports and Chatbot Arena snapshots — see methodology.
OpenRouter routes Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-4.1, and 100+ other LLMs behind a single API key — pay-as-you-go, no monthly minimum, fallback if a provider is down. Try OpenRouter → (affiliate · supports this site)
Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-4.1: where each one wins
Claude Sonnet 4 is stronger on
- MMLU-Pro
- GPQA
- MATH
- HumanEval
- SWE-Bench
GPT-4.1 is stronger on
- Arena
Cost comparison
At 10M tokens/day (50/50 split), Claude Sonnet 4 costs ~$90.00/day vs $50.00/day for GPT-4.1 — GPT-4.1 is the cheaper pick at this volume.
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4 edges out GPT-4.1 on the composite (80.7 vs 74.5). The gap is meaningful but not decisive — see the per-benchmark breakdown below.
If you can only pick one and your workload is unclear, route via OpenRouter and switch by request — same key, no lock-in.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-4.1?
Claude Sonnet 4 edges out GPT-4.1 on the composite (80.7 vs 74.5). The gap is meaningful but not decisive — see the per-benchmark breakdown below. Claude Sonnet 4 wins on MMLU-Pro, GPQA, MATH, HumanEval, SWE-Bench; GPT-4.1 wins on Arena.
What does Claude Sonnet 4 cost compared to GPT-4.1?
At 10M tokens/day (50/50 split), Claude Sonnet 4 costs ~$90.00/day vs $50.00/day for GPT-4.1 — GPT-4.1 is the cheaper pick at this volume.
What is the context window of Claude Sonnet 4 vs GPT-4.1?
Claude Sonnet 4: 200k tokens. GPT-4.1: 1M tokens. GPT-4.1 has the larger window — useful for long-document RAG and full-codebase prompting.
Is Claude Sonnet 4 or GPT-4.1 open source?
Claude Sonnet 4: closed / proprietary. GPT-4.1: closed / proprietary.
Can I try Claude Sonnet 4 and GPT-4.1 on the same API key?
Yes — OpenRouter routes both models behind a single key, so you can A/B test Claude Sonnet 4 against GPT-4.1 without juggling provider accounts.
Model deep-dives: Claude Sonnet 4 · GPT-4.1 · Full leaderboard
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