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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs o3-mini (Reasoning)

Compare Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs o3-mini (Reasoning) API pricing, token costs, context windows, and latency. See which model is cheaper and better for your stack.

AI Overview & Search Executive Summary

Claude 3.5 Sonnet charges $3.00/1M input and $15.00/1M output tokens, compared to o3-mini (Reasoning) at $1.10/1M input and $4.40/1M output. o3-mini (Reasoning) is 2.7x cheaper on input tokens. In benchmark reasoning, Claude 3.5 Sonnet holds the higher intelligence rating (94/100). For latency-critical streaming, Claude 3.5 Sonnet delivers 80 t/s (460ms TTFT) while o3-mini (Reasoning) provides 95 t/s (580ms TTFT).

Overall Winner
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Best Price/IQ Balance
Budget Winner
o3-mini (Reasoning)
o3-mini (Reasoning) is 2.7x cheaper on input tokens
Coding & Logic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Higher Benchmark Rating
Context Window
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Larger Document Context

Full Metric & Specification Comparison

MetricClaude 3.5 Sonneto3-mini (Reasoning)Advantage
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI-
Input Token Cost (1M)$3.000$1.100o3-mini (Reasoning)
Output Token Cost (1M)$15.000$4.400o3-mini (Reasoning)
Context Window200k tokens200k tokensTie
Intelligence Benchmark Score94/10093/100Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Streaming LatencyFastFast-

Key Architectural Takeaways

  • Input Token Cost: Claude 3.5 Sonnet is $3.00/1M vs o3-mini (Reasoning) at $1.10/1M
  • Output Token Cost: Claude 3.5 Sonnet is $15.00/1M vs o3-mini (Reasoning) at $4.40/1M
  • Context Window: Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200k tokens vs o3-mini (Reasoning) with 200k tokens
  • Benchmark Intelligence Rating: Claude 3.5 Sonnet scores 94/100 vs o3-mini (Reasoning) at 93/100
  • Inference Latency: Claude 3.5 Sonnet is rated Fast vs o3-mini (Reasoning) rated Fast
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Calculate Your Team's Exact Bill Difference

Drag the sliders below to see real-time cost divergences based on your daily token consumption.

Daily Input Tokens500,000 tokens
10k1M5M10M+
Daily Output Tokens250,000 tokens
5k500k2M5M+
Claude 3.5 SonnetAnthropic
$157.50/mo
$3.00/1M in · $15.00/1M out
IQ Score94/100
Throughput80 t/s
Context200k
o3-mini (Reasoning)OpenAI
68.6% Lower Cost
$49.50/mo
$1.10/1M in · $4.40/1M out
IQ Score93/100
Throughput95 t/s
Context200k
Net Financial Advantage

Deploying o3-mini (Reasoning) over Claude 3.5 Sonnet saves $108.00/mo ($1296/yr) at this volume.

See all Claude 3.5 Sonnet alternatives →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet cheaper than o3-mini (Reasoning)?

o3-mini (Reasoning) is significantly more economical, charging $1.10/1M input compared to $3.00/1M for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Which model should I choose for production?

If your primary constraint is API cost and high query throughput, choose o3-mini (Reasoning). If you require peak reasoning accuracy and complex tool use, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is recommended.

How does context window compare between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and o3-mini (Reasoning)?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet offers the larger context window (200k tokens), allowing you to pass significantly larger codebases or documents without chunking.

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