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Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs SWE-1.7

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 4 shared benchmark results across 2 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

65.32/100
No comparison
Cognition
N/A
1 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); SWE-1.7 unranked (Not scored). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and SWE-1.7 share 4 comparable benchmark results. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 32 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 0 to SWE-1.7.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
4
Claude Sonnet 5 only
32
SWE-1.7 only
0
Comparable categories
1 / 8

Treat this as a split decision. Claude Sonnet 5 makes more sense if agentic is the priority or you need the larger 1M context window; SWE-1.7 is the better fit if its strengths line up with your actual workload.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 4 shared benchmark results across 2 evidence categories; 1 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 and SWE-1.7 finish on the same BenchAlign overall score, so this is less about a single winner and more about where the edge shows up. The BenchAlign headline says tie; the benchmark table is where the real choice happens.

Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for SWE-1.7.

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 Sonnet 5 and SWE-1.7
CategoryClaude Sonnet 5ΔSWE-1.7
AgenticClaude Sonnet 581.9Margin 0.4SWE-1.781.5
CodingClaude Sonnet 576.7MarginNo overlapSWE-1.7Not measured
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 557.4MarginNo overlapSWE-1.7Not measured
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 588.3MarginNo overlapSWE-1.7Not measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Claude Sonnet 5B · SWE-1.7
  1. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 80.4%B 81.5%
    Winner: SWE-1.7Δ 1.1
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 80.4%; SWE-1.7 scored 81.5%. SWE-1.7 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricClaude Sonnet 5SWE-1.7Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 outputSWE-1.7Not availableA complete price comparison is not available.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Sonnet 5Not availableSWE-1.7Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Sonnet 5Not availableSWE-1.7Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Sonnet 51MSWE-1.7256KClaude Sonnet 5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5SWE-1.7Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%81.5%SWE-1.7 leads
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
Coding
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5SWE-1.7Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 85.2%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 63.2%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 78.3%77.8%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
SWE MultimodalSource 28.1%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%81.5%SWE-1.7 leads
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource 42.7%42.3%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
cursorBench32Source 61.5%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 71.5%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 53.6%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5SWE-1.7Result
AA-LCRSource 70.7%Not comparable
CritPtSource 16.9%Not comparable
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5SWE-1.7Result
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
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5SWE-1.7Result
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 (2)

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or SWE-1.7?

Claude Sonnet 5 and SWE-1.7 are tied on the BenchAlign overall score, so the right pick depends on which category matters most for your use case.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or SWE-1.7?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.9 versus 81.5. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Related Comparisons

Last updated: July 23, 2026

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