This may have been the busiest week in AI with a flurry of announcements. After Microsoft Build and Google I/O, Anthropic is all set to make waves. The AI startup has announced Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its next generation of Claude models claimed to set new standards for coding, advanced reasoning, and AI agents.
According to Anthropic, Claude Opus 4 is the world’s best coding model that comes with sustained performance on complex, long-running tasks and agent workflows. On the other hand, Claude Sonnet 4 comes as a significant upgrade to its predecessor, Claude Sonnet 3.7, as it delivers superior coding and reasoning while at the same time offering more precise responses.
The new models mark a bold shift from competing in the chatbot space and towards becoming a sought-after AI coding platform. Several AI enthusiasts are already hailing Claude 4 Opus as the ‘world’s best coding model’. So how does it stack up against OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s Gemini and some popular players like Vibe Coding?
How is Claude 4 different?
Claude 4 has two variants – Opus, which is the high-performance premium model, and Sonnet, which is the cheaper and faster alternative. Both models can offer instant answers and can deliver extended thinking modes for complex and multi-step tasks, making them hybrid.
The key highlight of the new Claude models is something known as long-horizon task execution. Simply put, while most AI models may lose track after a few prompts, the Claude 4 models can stay on tasks for tens of minutes, maybe even hours, without getting distracted. This is beneficial for coding, as developers may often be required to follow through consistent logic, memory of previous steps, and also integration with multiple tools.
Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 support parallel tool usage, which enables them to call on various APIs or plugins at the same time. This essentially speeds up complex operations and reduces errors.
Into the API ecosystem
With the new generation of Claude models, Anthropic seems to be focused on building an AI coding assistant ecosystem. The Claude Code platform, which is now generally available, integrates into tools like VS Code, JetBrains, and also GitHub Copilot with Sonnet 4 as the default model. The features include code execution in Python, an MCP connector which allows a user to hook up to any modern coding tools, a Files API allowing access to code repositories, and prompt caching to save costs and improve speed.
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When it comes to MCP or Modular Cooperation Protocol, a framework that allows seamless integration between AI tools, Claude 4 marks a significant leap. Anthropic is the pioneer in MCP, which was later adopted by the likes of OpenAI. With its new MCP connector, Claude can effortlessly connect to any MCP-compatible server, allowing it to access multiple external tools simultaneously. This ability to use multiple tools at once makes Claude models hyper-efficient at executing complex tasks and multi-step coding tasks without losing context. Claude 4 is now being positioned by Anthropic as an infrastructure layer for agentic AI, making way for smarter, long-horizon task execution across coding, document handling, and enterprise workflows.
How good is it?
On the Swebench coding benchmark, Claude 4 Sonnet beats Opus (80.2 per cent vs. 79.4 per cent), and both outperform OpenAI’s Code Interpreter (GPT-4.1 at 72 per cent). On the Terminal Bench test for real-world coding tasks, Opus steers ahead with 43.2 per cent, outdoing Gemini 2.5 Pro (25 per cent) and even GPT-4.1 (30 per cent). At the same time, some benchmarks even show regressions when compared to Claude 3.7, especially in some niche language tasks or high school math. Even though the overall performance has improved, it is not universal. However, early users claim that the new Opus feels faster and more focused than Sonnet; however, more testing is needed.
| Task | Claude Opus 4 | Claude Sonnet 4 | Claude Sonnet 3.7 | OpenAI GPT-4.1 | Gemini 2.5 Pro |
| Agentic coding (SWE-bench Verified) | 72.5% / 79.4% | 72.7% / 80.2% | 62.3% / 70.3% | 54.6% | 63.2% |
| Agentic terminal coding | 43.2% / 50.0% | 35.5% / 41.3% | 35.2% | 30.3% | 25.3% |
| Graduate-level reasoning | 79.6% / 83.3% | 75.4% / 83.8% | 78.2% | 66.3% | 83.0% |
| Tool use – Retail | 81.4% | 80.5% | 81.2% | 68.0% | — |
| Tool use – Airline | 59.6% | 60.0% | 58.4% | 49.4% | — |
| Multilingual Q&A | 88.8% | 86.5% | 85.9% | 83.7% | — |
| Visual reasoning | 76.5% | 74.4% | 75.0% | 74.8% | 79.6% |
| High school math competition (AIME) | 75.5% / 90.0% | 70.5% / 85.0% | 54.8% | — | 83.0% |
With its latest launch, Anthropic is moving out of the chatbot race which is dominated by ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. The company is directing all its efforts to create the AI layer for next-generation coding agents. Claude 4 stands out with its cloud APIs, real-world integrations, long-term memory, and tool support. The new offerings from Anthropic are more like an AI developer assistant who remembers everything and never gives up.
When it comes to pricing, Claude 4 Opus is priced at $15 per million input tokens and $75 per million output tokens. The model has a context window worth 200K tokens. The pricing for Claude Sonnet 4 starts at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, with up to 90 per cent cost savings with prompt caching and 50 per cent cost savings with batch processing.
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