Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT Realtime 2
Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT Realtime 2 are both current production-tier models. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is meaningfully cheaper at $3 / $15 per 1M. Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a 1M context window — about 8× the 128k of GPT Realtime 2. Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge.
Specs side by side
| Metric | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 | OpenAI GPT Realtime 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price (per 1M) | $3 | $4 |
| Output price (per 1M) | $15 | $24 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 128k tokens |
| Speed tier | balanced | ultra |
| Open weights | No | No |
| EU region | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Prompt caching | Yes | No |
| Vision input | Yes | No |
| Extended thinking | Yes | No |
When to choose each
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 if…
- You need 1M context (8× more than GPT Realtime 2)
- HIPAA eligibility is required
- You need image input / vision
- Coding is central to your workload
- Reasoning is central to your workload
Choose GPT Realtime 2 if…
- Low latency matters (ultra vs balanced)
- You need realtime speech-to-speech
Benchmark delta
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads on
- Coding
- Reasoning
- General knowledge
- Long-context retrieval
- Instruction following
- Tool use
GPT Realtime 2 leads on
GPT Realtime 2 has no meaningful benchmark lead in this pair.
FAQ — Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT Realtime 2
Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT Realtime 2 — which is better?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT Realtime 2 are both current production-tier models. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is meaningfully cheaper at $3 / $15 per 1M. Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a 1M context window — about 8× the 128k of GPT Realtime 2. Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge. The right pick depends on your use case — see "When to choose each" above for a data-driven decision.
How does Claude Sonnet 4.6 pricing compare to GPT Realtime 2?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3 / $15 per 1M vs GPT Realtime 2 at $4 / $24 per 1M. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper on output tokens by roughly 60%. Both support prompt caching, which reduces effective cost by 80-90% on repeat system prompts.
Does Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT Realtime 2 have the bigger context window?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a 1M-token context window — 8× the 128k context of GPT Realtime 2. Enough for entire codebases, books, or multi-document RAG.
Is there a free tier for Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT Realtime 2?
Claude Sonnet 4.6: no — Free via Claude.ai web chat; API requires paid credits. GPT Realtime 2: no — Paid-only.
Which is better for coding — Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT Realtime 2?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads on coding benchmarks (Claude Sonnet 4.6: 94/100, GPT Realtime 2: 78/100). For production coding agents also weigh tool-use performance — Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 96, GPT Realtime 2 scores 84.