API cost decision in 10 seconds
🔥GPT-5.4 vs 🔥Claude Sonnet 4.6
Pick GPT-5.4 when budget and context both matter.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick GPT-5.4 when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.4 is estimated at $10 vs $10.5 for Claude Sonnet 4.6, saving $0.5 (4.8% lower).
Cost-first pickGPT-5.4
Context-first pickGPT-5.4
Sample savings$0.54.8%
10x traffic gap$5
GPT-5.4 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
GPT-5.4 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | GPT-5.4 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | GPT-5.4 | $20 | $22.5 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | GPT-5.4 | $17.5 | $18 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | GPT-5.4 | $77.5 | $78 |
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
GPT-5.4 has the lower input price, Tie has the lower output price, and GPT-5.4 offers the larger context window.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $10 for GPT-5.4 and $10.5 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Choose GPT-5.4 when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
| Feature | 🔥GPT-5.4 (OpenAI) | 🔥Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $2.5 | $3 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $15 | $15 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $10 | $10.5 |
| Context Window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Release Date | 2026-03-05 | 2026-02-17 |
| Popularity | #19 | #4 |
GPT-5.4 is OpenAI’s latest frontier model, unifying the Codex and GPT lines into a single system. It features a 1M+ token context window (922K input, 128K output) with support for...
Sonnet 4.6 is Anthropic's most capable Sonnet-class model yet, with frontier performance across coding, agents, and professional work. It excels at iterative development, complex codebase navigation, end-to-end project management with...
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | GPT-5.4 | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.4 is estimated at $10 vs $10.5 for Claude Sonnet 4.6, saving $0.5 (4.8% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | GPT-5.4 | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts or retrieved passages dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Tie | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | GPT-5.4 | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages and source files. |