Which model is better: Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4.5?

**Claude 3.5 Sonnet decisively outperforms GPT-4.5 across cost efficiency, speed, and coding performance.** Claude is 96.0% cheaper on inputs at $3.00 versus $75.00 per 1M tokens, alongside $15.00 versus $150.00 for outputs. It responds faster with a 310ms TTFT (540ms lower latency) while leading benchmarks at 49.0% SWE-bench versus GPT-4.5's 38.0%.
Verified daily via automated API latency tests and official documentation.

Verified Performance & Unit Economics Delta

Daily synchronized metrics from synthetic latency endpoints and benchmark evaluations.

Metric / Dimension Claude 3.5 Sonnet GPT-4.5 Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens $3.00 $75.00 Claude 3.5 Sonnet is 25.0x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens $15.00 $150.00 Claude 3.5 Sonnet (90.0% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M $0.300 $37.500 Claude 3.5 Sonnet is 125.0x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M $3.75 $75.00 Claude 3.5 Sonnet is 20.0x cheaper
Avg TTFT Response Latency 310ms 850ms Claude 3.5 Sonnet (+540ms faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding) 49% 38% Claude 3.5 Sonnet (+11.0% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR) 47.3 / 100 22.1 / 100 Claude 3.5 Sonnet (+25.2 pts)

Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster

Model your expected production workload across prompt (input) and completion (output) tokens with prompt caching economics.

Live Calculation Engine
10.0M Tokens
100K 50M 250M 500M+
2.5M Tokens
100K 10M 50M 100M+

Estimated Monthly Spend

Claude 3.5 Sonnet $67.50

$3.00/1M in · $15.00/1M out

Prompt Cache: $0.300/1M read · $3.75/1M write

GPT-4.5 $1,125.00

$75.00/1M in · $150.00/1M out

Prompt Cache: $37.500/1M read · $75.00/1M write

Projected Monthly Cost Reduction
$1,057.50 / mo
(94.0% lower cost with Claude 3.5 Sonnet)
A

When to Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when you need Industry benchmark for complex software engineering, intricate reasoning, and human-like prose composition. and have an infrastructure budget aligned with $3.00/1M tokens.

B

When to Choose GPT-4.5

Choose GPT-4.5 when you need Deep world-knowledge synthesis, high-EQ conversational nuance, and long-form creative generation requiring massive pretraining breadth. and prioritize OpenAI ecosystem integration at $75.00/1M tokens.

Related Questions & Decision Factors

Which is cheaper: Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4.5?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is cheaper at $3.00/1M input tokens compared to $75.00/1M for GPT-4.5.

Which model has lower latency: Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4.5?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet delivers faster response times with an average TTFT of 310ms vs 850ms for GPT-4.5.

When should you choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet?

Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when you need Industry benchmark for complex software engineering, intricate reasoning, and human-like prose composition. and have an infrastructure budget aligned with $3.00/1M tokens.

When should you choose GPT-4.5?

Choose GPT-4.5 when you need Deep world-knowledge synthesis, high-EQ conversational nuance, and long-form creative generation requiring massive pretraining breadth. and prioritize OpenAI ecosystem integration at $75.00/1M tokens.

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