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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-6.1 Terra

Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra are both current text models, from Anthropic and OpenAI. GPT-6.1 Terra is 50% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5, $1 vs $2. On Arena WebDev, Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1540 Elo and GPT-6.1 Terra 1673 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). GPT-6.1 Terra has the larger context window, 1,050,000 vs 1,000,000 tokens.

Higher Arena WebDev
GPT-6.1 Terra1673 Elo against 1540 Elo
Lower price per 1M input tokens
GPT-6.1 Terra$1 against $2
Longer context window
GPT-6.1 Terra1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
Newer release
GPT-6.1 TerraOct 2026 against Jun 2026

Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03

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Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactClaude Sonnet 5GPT-6.1 Terra
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$2$1 (better)
Price per 1M output tokens$10$5 (better)
Independent benchmarks
Arena WebDev1540 Elo (#33 of 45)1673 Elo (#10 of 45) (better)
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)65.6% (#28 of 42)90.9% (#4 of 42) (better)
GPQA Diamond90.5% (#26 of 41)94.3% (#7 of 41) (better)
SimpleQA Verified33.7% (#31 of 38)57.3% (#15 of 38) (better)
Arena Text1462 Elo (#29 of 51)Not measured
LiveBench Overall74.85 points (#4 of 4)Not measured
Specs
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
Release dateJune 30, 2026October 26, 2026
AccessAPI onlyAPI only
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,050,000 tokens
Max output128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Inputtexttext, image
Outputtexttext

Scores:Arena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03LiveBench · 2026-06-25

Open both in the interactive comparison

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

On Arena WebDev, Claude Sonnet 5 ranks #33 and GPT-6.1 Terra #10 of 45 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.

Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Claude Sonnet 5:#29of 51

1,462 Elo · ahead of 44%

GPT-6.1 Terra: Not scored

Arena WebDev

Claude Sonnet 5:#33of 45

1,540 Elo · ahead of 27%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#10of 45

1,673 Elo · ahead of 80%

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Claude Sonnet 5:#28of 42

65.6% · ahead of 34%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#4of 42

90.9% · ahead of 93%

GPQA Diamond

Claude Sonnet 5:#26of 41

90.5% · ahead of 35%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#7of 41

94.3% · ahead of 83%

SimpleQA Verified

Claude Sonnet 5:#31of 38

33.7% · ahead of 19%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#15of 38

57.3% · ahead of 62%

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Claude Sonnet 5:#29of 52

$2 · cheaper than 24%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#21of 52

$1 · cheaper than 59%

Price per 1M output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5:#34of 52

$10 · cheaper than 25%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#27of 52

$5 · cheaper than 49%

Context window

Claude Sonnet 5:#26of 64

1M tokens · longer than 22%

GPT-6.1 Terra:#1of 64

1.05M tokens · longer than 86%

Scores fromArena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 28, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1,462 at $4 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.

Quality against priceArena Text score against price for 43 text models, Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra marked.1,2501,3001,3501,4001,4501,5001,550$0.30$1$3$10MOST ATTRACTIVE QUADRANTMedian price $3Median 1,475Blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scaleArena Text (Elo)Claude Sonnet 5
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 43 text models, Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra marked.
ModelProviderBlended price per 1M tokensArena Text (Elo)
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle$41,520
Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic$81,509
Muse WonderMeta$81,507
Claude Fable 5Anthropic$201,504
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$201,504
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$1.501,496
Muse Spark 1.3Meta$21,495
Claude Opus 5Anthropic$101,492
Kimi K3Moonshot Kimi$61,488
GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$81,485
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle$31,483
GPT-5.5OpenAI$111,482
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic$101,482
Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba Qwen$31,482
GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$41,481
GLM-5.3Z.ai$2.151,481
MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi MiMo$0.541,480
Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$41,477
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai$0.241,477
GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$201,476
DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek$0.521,476
GPT-5.4OpenAI$5.631,475
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle$1.131,473
Grok 4.20xAI$1.561,472
GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$4.501,467
Grok 4.5xAI$31,465
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek$1.981,465
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$41,462
GPT-6 SolOpenAI$41,458
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle$0.851,456
Grok 4.6xAI$31,455
GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.451,453
MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi MiMo$0.181,448
Step 5 PreviewStepFun$1.431,448
Grok 4.3xAI$1.561,442
GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.201,441
Grok 4.7xAI$31,441
Mistral Large 4Mistral AI$1.051,432
Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic$0.201,425
GPT-4.1OpenAI$3.501,415
Solar Pro 4Upstage$0.521,388
GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI$0.701,383
GPT-4.1 nanoOpenAI$0.181,322

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs 2.0 times as much as GPT-6.1 Terra, at each provider's listed rates.

What Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra cost for the same work, at the rates each provider lists.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    Claude Sonnet 5 costs 2.0× as much

    Claude Sonnet 5
    $40
    GPT-6.1 Terra
    $20

  • The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached

    Claude Sonnet 5 costs 2.1× as much

    Claude Sonnet 5
    $23.80
    GPT-6.1 Terra
    $11.45
Workload or rateClaude Sonnet 5GPT-6.1 Terra
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$40$20 (better)
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$23.80$11.45 (better)
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.20$0.05 (better)
1M input tokens, prompts over 272K tokensNot listed$2
1M output tokens, prompts over 272K tokensNot listed$7.50

Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.

Launch price $100, regular price $150

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Verdict

When to choose each

Claude Sonnet 5

Where it leads

No measured lead over GPT-6.1 Terra in this data.

Best for

  • Agentic coding evaluations with current introductory API pricing

Watch out for

  • The launch price is introductory through 2026-08-31; refresh pricing before evaluating workloads after that date
Full Claude Sonnet 5 profile

GPT-6.1 Terra

Where it leads

  • Lower input and output prices, $1 and $5 vs $2 and $10 per 1M tokens
  • Higher Arena WebDev score, 1673 Elo vs 1540 Elo
  • Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 90.9% vs 65.6%
  • Higher GPQA Diamond score, 94.3% vs 90.5%
  • Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 57.3% vs 33.7%
  • Larger context window 1,050,000 vs 1,000,000 tokens
  • Accepts image input
  • Cheaper cached input, $0.05 vs $0.20 per 1M tokens

Best for

  • Computer-use and tool-calling agents at half GPT-6.1 Sol's price
  • High-volume reasoning work that stays under the 272K long-context threshold

Watch out for

  • Prompts over 272,000 input tokens bill the whole request at $2 input and $7.50 output per 1M tokens
  • Reads text and images only: audio and video input are not supported
Full GPT-6.1 Terra profile

From benchmark to production

Building on Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-6.1 Terra?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes

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FAQ

Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-6.1 Terra FAQ

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-6.1 Terra?

GPT-6.1 Terra is 50% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5, $1 vs $2. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $40 and GPT-6.1 Terra $20 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-6.1 Terra?

Claude Sonnet 5 charges $0.20 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and GPT-6.1 Terra $0.05, 95% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $23.80 and GPT-6.1 Terra $11.45.

Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-6.1 Terra?

GPT-6.1 Terra leads on Arena WebDev, 1673 Elo to 1540 Elo; GPT-6.1 Terra leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 90.9% to 65.6%; GPT-6.1 Terra leads on GPQA Diamond, 94.3% to 90.5%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.

Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-6.1 Terra?

GPT-6.1 Terra has the larger context window, 1,050,000 vs 1,000,000 tokens. Both return up to 128,000 tokens per response.

How do Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra differ in features?

Claude Sonnet 5 takes text input; GPT-6.1 Terra takes text and image.

Further reading

More on Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra

Articles on Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5 and GPT-6.1 Terra?

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  • A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
  • Routing between models by cost and difficulty
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