--- title: "Is Claude Sonnet 4 still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/anthropic__claude-sonnet-4/ description: "Claude Sonnet 4: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is Claude Sonnet 4 still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Claude Sonnet 4: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is Claude Sonnet 4 a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Claude Sonnet 4 on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 13 undominated of 136 · Sep 23, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Sep 23, 2026, Claude Sonnet 4 is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 155.4 higher and costs 75% less, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/anthropic__claude-sonnet-4/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=anthropic%2Fclaude-sonnet-4%2Cgoogle%2Fgemini-3.8-flash) Current model Claude Sonnet 4 Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) Gemini 3.8 Flash is both better and cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4: 155.4 points higher on LMArena and 75% less per million tokens, $4.50 cheaper at this mix. [Claude Sonnet 4](https://undominated.ai/models/anthropic__claude-sonnet-4/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1339.3 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $6.00/M [Gemini 3.8 Flash](https://undominated.ai/models/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1494.7 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $1.50/M Claude Sonnet 4 takes image, text, file, returns up to 64,000 tokens from a 200,000-token context, and is listed by 2 sellers. Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 32 models dominate it and give up nothing, 5 more dominate it but give something up. Claude Sonnet 4 scores 1339.3 at $6.00 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Gemini 3.8 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) | 1494.7 +155.4 | $1.50/M | 75% | | [Gemini 3.7 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.7-flash/) | 1490.5 +151.2 | $1.50/M | 75% | | [Muse Spark 1.3](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.3/) | 1489.7 +150.4 | $2.00/M | 67% | | [Muse Spark 1.1](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.1/) | 1480.2 +140.9 | $2.00/M | 67% | | [Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview](/models/google__gemini-3.1-pro-preview/) | 1480.1 +140.8 | $4.50/M | 25% | | [Gemini 3.6 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.6-flash/) | 1476.1 +136.8 | $1.50/M | 75% | | [Gemini 3.5 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.5-flash/) | 1475.7 +136.4 | $3.38/M | 44% | | [Claude Sonnet 4.6](/models/anthropic__claude-sonnet-4.6/) | 1458.3 +119.0 | $6.00/M | 0% | | [Gemini 2.5 Pro](/models/google__gemini-2.5-pro/) | 1457.8 +118.5 | $3.44/M | 43% | | [GPT-5.6 Sol](/models/openai__gpt-5.6-sol/) | 1455.1 +115.8 | $4.00/M | 33% | | [GPT-5.4](/models/openai__gpt-5.4/) | 1452.6 +113.3 | $5.63/M | 6% | | [Grok 4.5](/models/x-ai__grok-4.5/) | 1450.1 +110.8 | $3.00/M | 50% | | [GPT-5.6 Terra](/models/openai__gpt-5.6-terra/) | 1446.2 +106.9 | $4.50/M | 25% | | [Claude Sonnet 5](/models/anthropic__claude-sonnet-5/) | 1442.2 +102.9 | $4.00/M | 33% | | [Claude Sonnet 4.5](/models/anthropic__claude-sonnet-4.5/) | 1438.3 +99.0 | $6.00/M | 0% | | [Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite](/models/google__gemini-3.5-flash-lite/) | 1435.5 +96.2 | $0.850/M | 86% | | [GPT-5.6 Luna](/models/openai__gpt-5.6-luna/) | 1429.9 +90.6 | $0.450/M | 93% | | [Grok 4.6](/models/x-ai__grok-4.6/) | 1429.9 +90.6 | $3.00/M | 50% | | [GPT-5.1](/models/openai__gpt-5.1/) | 1422.6 +83.3 | $3.44/M | 43% | | [Mistral Medium 3.5](/models/mistralai__mistral-medium-3-5/) | 1420.6 +81.3 | $3.00/M | 50% | | [Gemini 2.5 Flash](/models/google__gemini-2.5-flash/) | 1417.3 +78.0 | $0.850/M | 86% | | [Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview](/models/google__gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview/) | 1415.3 +76.0 | $0.563/M | 91% | | [GPT-5.2](/models/openai__gpt-5.2/) | 1412.4 +73.1 | $4.81/M | 20% | | [GPT-5.4 Mini](/models/openai__gpt-5.4-mini/) | 1412.1 +72.8 | $1.69/M | 72% | | [o3](/models/openai__o3/) | 1409.9 +70.6 | $3.50/M | 42% | | [GPT-5](/models/openai__gpt-5/) | 1406.1 +66.8 | $3.44/M | 43% | | [Grok 4.3](/models/x-ai__grok-4.3/) | 1397.7 +58.4 | $1.56/M | 74% | | [Claude Haiku 4.5](/models/anthropic__claude-haiku-4.5/) | 1396.6 +57.3 | $2.00/M | 67% | | [GPT-5 Mini](/models/openai__gpt-5-mini/) | 1373.0 +33.7 | $0.688/M | 89% | | [GPT-5.4 Nano](/models/openai__gpt-5.4-nano/) | 1372.9 +33.6 | $0.463/M | 92% | | [Nova 2 Lite](/models/amazon__nova-2-lite-v1/) | 1362.6 +23.3 | $0.850/M | 86% | | [o4 Mini](/models/openai__o4-mini/) | 1353.2 +13.9 | $1.93/M | 68% | ## Higher score, lower price, named losses Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [GLM 5.3](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3/) | 1475.1 | $1.29/M | image, file | | [Kimi K3](/models/moonshotai__kimi-k3/) | 1472.3 | $6.00/M | file | | [GLM 5.3 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) | 1471.9 | $0.237/M | file | | [GLM 5.2](/models/z-ai__glm-5.2/) | 1466.9 | $0.998/M | image, file | | [MiMo-V2.5-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.5-pro/) | 1464.8 | $0.544/M | image, file | 136 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)