Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max
Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $16.88 per million input tokens and $83.20 per million output tokens, and averages 83.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.88 / 1M
- Output
- $83.20 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 83.7
- Open weights
- No
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $16.99 per million input tokens and $82.33 per million output tokens, and averages 83.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.99 / 1M
- Output
- $82.33 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 83.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $16.88 | $16.99 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $83.20 | $82.33 | B |
| Context window | 128,000 | 128,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 32,768 | 16,384 | A |
| Average score | 83.7 | 83.8 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1461.6 | 1447.6 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max wins 8, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision wins 4, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.0 | 84.8 | 1.2 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 76.8 | 79.6 | 2.8 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.1 | 73.7 | 2.4 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| HumanEval | 90.9 | 87.0 | 3.9 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| MATH-500 | 87.2 | 90.6 | 3.4 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision |
| AIME 2025 | 80.7 | 86.4 | 5.7 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision |
| LiveCodeBench | 78.1 | 76.5 | 1.6 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| IFEval | 90.0 | 89.9 | 0.1 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| TruthfulQA | 84.7 | 83.7 | 1.0 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.2 | 89.4 | 1.8 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
| MMMU | 78.8 | 79.7 | 0.9 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1461.6 | 1447.6 | 14.0 | Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max costs about $33.46 per million tokens and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision costs about $33.33. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision is roughly 0% cheaper than Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 128,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max wins 8, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision wins 4, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision leads Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max by 0.1 points (83.8 versus 83.7).
The price picture favours Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision. The context picture is effectively a tie. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max if
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
FAQ
Is Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max better than Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision?
On the index average, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision leads Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max by 0.1 points (83.8 versus 83.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max wins 8 benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision wins 4.
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max or Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $33.33 per million tokens, versus $33.46 for Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 128,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet Max is proprietary; Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Sonnet 4.5 Vision for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.