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Model comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude Sonnet 5

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 1 shared benchmark result across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

47.74/100
Margin
17.6pts
winning →
65.32/100
1 category wins1 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude 3.5 Sonnet #132 (Estimated); Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 5 share 1 comparable benchmark result. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 3 results are unique to Claude 3.5 Sonnet; 35 to Claude Sonnet 5.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
1
Claude 3.5 Sonnet only
3
Claude Sonnet 5 only
35
Comparable categories
2 / 8

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 3.5 Sonnet only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 1 shared benchmark result across 1 evidence category; 2 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 65.32 to 47.74. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 76.7 against 49. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 49% to 85.2%. Claude 3.5 Sonnet does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 5. Claude Sonnet 5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude Sonnet 5
CategoryClaude 3.5 SonnetΔClaude Sonnet 5
CodingClaude 3.5 Sonnet49.0Margin→ 27.7Claude Sonnet 576.7
KnowledgeClaude 3.5 Sonnet59.4Margin← 2.0Claude Sonnet 557.4
AgenticClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Sonnet 581.9
MathClaude 3.5 Sonnet1.6MarginNo overlapClaude Sonnet 5Not measured
MultimodalClaude 3.5 SonnetNot measuredMarginNo overlapClaude Sonnet 588.3

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude 3.5 SonnetB · Claude Sonnet 5

  1. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 49%B 85.2%
    Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 36.2
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude 3.5 Sonnet scored 49%; Claude Sonnet 5 scored 85.2%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet$3 input / $15 outputClaude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 outputClaude Sonnet 5 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableClaude Sonnet 5Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude 3.5 SonnetNot availableClaude Sonnet 5Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude 3.5 Sonnet200KClaude Sonnet 51MClaude Sonnet 5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source —80.4%Not comparable
BrowseCompSource —84.7%Not comparable
HLE w/ toolsSource —57.4%Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource —81.2%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource —1607Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource —46.7%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource —55.4%Not comparable
AA BriefcaseSource —1388Not comparable
AA AutomationBenchSource —39.2%Not comparable
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource —44.7%Not comparable
AA Harvey LABSource —90.1%Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource —28.2%Not comparable
aaTerminalBench21Source —80.5%Not comparable
CodingClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 49%85.2%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
SWE-bench ProSource —63.2%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource —78.3%Not comparable
SWE MultimodalSource —28.1%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source —80.4%Not comparable
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource —42.7%Not comparable
cursorBench32Source —61.5%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource —71.5%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource —53.6%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Result
AA-LCRSource —70.7%Not comparable
CritPtSource —16.9%Not comparable
KnowledgeClaude 3.5 Sonnet wins
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Result
GPQASource 59.4%—Not comparable
HLESource —57.4%Not comparable
HLE w/o toolsSource —43.2%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource —53.4%Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource —91.1%Not comparable
AA-HLESource —39.6%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource —15.3%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource —38.3%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource —37.3%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Result
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 2.069%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 0.000%—Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude Sonnet 5Result
CharXivSource —88.3%Not comparable
CharXiv w/o toolsSource —77%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource —77.3%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource —1314Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (3)

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 65.32 to 47.74. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 49% and 85.2%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 59.4 versus 57.4. Claude Sonnet 5 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Which is better for coding, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.7 versus 49. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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