The situation is less about Sonnet 4.5 being a disappointment and more about a strategic shift in how the AI models are being offered. For power users, the key takeaway is that the workflow must now adapt. Opus 4.1 remains the superior tool for deep, complex tasks, but it is now positioned as a premium, limited resource. Sonnet 4.5 is the new, faster default for everything else. The frustration is a natural consequence of this transition, especially when the communication and marketing don't fully articulate this nuanced strategy to the most dedicated segment of the user base. Answer from AryaN_2348 on reddit.com
Reddit
reddit.com › r/claudecode › is claude code sonnet 4.5 really better than opus 4.1? not seeing it.
r/ClaudeCode on Reddit: Is Claude Code Sonnet 4.5 Really Better Than Opus 4.1? Not Seeing It.
October 3, 2025 -
How are people genuinely praising Claude Code Sonnet 4.5? I have no idea what’s happening…but from my experience it’s pretty disappointing. Sorry if that stings, but I’m honestly curious about what others see in it.
I’m speaking as someone who uses Claude Code daily easily 7+ hours per day and who has been deeply involved with it since the beginning. I consider myself a power user and truly understand the capabilities it should have. Maybe I’m missing something crucial here…but BESIDES that point I’m really dissatisfied and frustrated with Anthropic right now.
On top of that, the marketing hype around Sonnet 4.5 feels like the same garbage AI slot promotion we saw everywhere with ChatGPT lol. It’s being marketed as the “best model in the world,” likely to people who barely even scratch its surface.
I’ve also just hit a usage limit on Opus 4.1. I’m on the max 200 plan and now there’s some kind of cap in place…for what, a week? Why? If Sonnet is sooooo good why are they placing weekly limits on opus 4.1? So stupid. Can someone explain what’s going on here?
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Sonnet 4.5 solved a complex deadlock bug in two shots that Opus 4.1, Gemini 2.5 pro, and codex 5 cli thinking have spent weeks on. I’ve been impressed and I’ve gone from only Opus 4.1 to only Sonnet 4.5 with no noticeable degradation.
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The situation is less about Sonnet 4.5 being a disappointment and more about a strategic shift in how the AI models are being offered. For power users, the key takeaway is that the workflow must now adapt. Opus 4.1 remains the superior tool for deep, complex tasks, but it is now positioned as a premium, limited resource. Sonnet 4.5 is the new, faster default for everything else. The frustration is a natural consequence of this transition, especially when the communication and marketing don't fully articulate this nuanced strategy to the most dedicated segment of the user base.
CodeRabbit
coderabbit.ai › blog › claude-sonnet-45-better-performance-but-a-paradox
Claude Sonnet 4.5: Better performance but a paradox
October 3, 2025 - We benchmarked Claude Sonnet 4.5 as it narrows the gap with Opus 4.1 in code review, catching more critical bugs with 41% important hits at lower cost.
Coding: Opus 4.5 vs Sonnet 4.5
In my totally personal experience, if you want a long rambling session where you plan and implement iteratively, Sonnet is your wo/man. But if you want to cut that down, spend a large amount of effort (on your part) making an initial plan, and then mostly one shotting after that, ask Opus. Sonnet can do this too so at least IME Sonnet is a good all around model. Opus, at least IME, struggles with long sessions. More on reddit.com
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3 weeks agoSonnet 4.5 vs Opus 4.1
I just tried it and opus 4.1 is still superior. Had a cookie issue that sonnet 4.5 introduced and after 5+ attempts to fix it, I switched back to opus 4.1 and it fixed it in one try. This is just one scenario but Makes me think the benchmarks are meaningless Update: I had sonnet 4.5 also working on a different issue and it decided to create a completely new simplified file instead of just modifying the one we’ve been working on. Maybe this model just needs very specific instructions but it was pretty much obvious to opus 4.1. More on reddit.com
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September 29, 2025Maybe Opus 4.5 is even cheaper than Sonnet 4.5
also opus in plan mode or when you'll explicitly ask will spawn agents. many agents. which might sound like total token hog - but in a long run over v. large codebases i worked on it's a lifesaving thing - as the swarm can actually analyze A LOT of code and provide you one, robust and reliable solution instead of the usual trial-and-error sonnet's approach before this planning mode became a thing. More on reddit.com
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1 month agoNeed advice choosing between Claude Sonnet 4, 4.5, and Opus 4.5 for large-scale script generation
Opus 4.5. You get the same usage if you're on a higher-tier plan, and it's just an all-around better model, period. Why are you leaning Sonnet 4.5? More on reddit.com
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November 26, 2025Videos
07:23
Anthropic is NOT holding back with THIS model | Sonnet 4.5 vs Opus ...
03:25
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Is Here… And It’s BETTER Than Opus?! (First ...
24:14
Claude 4.5 Sonnet Is Here! Better Than Opus? - YouTube
08:10
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Opus 4.1 Coding Test | Which is the Best Coding ...
08:41
🔥 Claude Code & Opus 4.5 Just Got DESTROYED (PROOF) - YouTube
Anthropic
anthropic.com › news › claude-opus-4-5
Introducing Claude Opus 4.5
November 24, 2025 - Claude Opus 4.5 excels at long-horizon, autonomous tasks, especially those that require sustained reasoning and multi-step execution. In our evaluations it handled complex workflows with fewer dead-ends. On Terminal Bench it delivered a 15% improvement over Sonnet 4.5, a meaningful gain that ...
Lisa Peyton
lisapeyton.com › home › claude 4.1 opus vs. claude 4.5 sonnet: a real-world showdown for content marketers
Claude 4.1 Opus vs. Claude 4.5 Sonnet: A Real-World Showdown for Content Marketers | Lisa Peyton
October 2, 2025 - Claude 4.5 Sonnet opened with: “Here’s the truth nobody’s saying out loud: Your job isn’t one thing—it’s fifty things wrapped in a fancy title.” Different approach, but equally engaging.
Data Studios
datastudios.org › post › claude-opus-4-5-vs-claude-sonnet-4-5-model-differences-pricing-structure-context-windows-and-mor
Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5: Model Differences, Pricing Structure, Context Windows, and more
November 25, 2025 - Sonnet 4.5 performs extremely well in practical coding, summarization, spreadsheet manipulation, short-to-medium reasoning and content generation — often delivering 90–95% of Opus’s performance at significantly reduced cost.
Skywork
skywork.ai › home › claude sonnet 4.5 vs opus: das bessere ki-modell?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Opus: Das bessere KI-Modell? - Skywork ai
October 5, 2025 - Wenn du heute entscheiden müsstest, würde ich ganz klar sagen: Claude Sonnet 4.5 ist die bessere Wahl – stabiler, günstiger im Betrieb und mit echter Produktivitätssteigerung.
Creole Studios
creolestudios.com › home › claude sonnet 4.5 vs opus 4.1: which model wins for coding, agents, and long runs?
Sonnet 4.5 vs Opus 4.1: Which one is best for Coding & Agents?
October 9, 2025 - Consistent latency on their existing infra and tooling. If Opus is your incumbent and performs well on your repos, it absolutely deserves a head-to-head against Sonnet 4.5—especially on deeply analytical or policy-driven agent tasks.
AutonomyAI
autonomyai.io › home › sonnet 4.5 vs. opus 4.1 – enterprise vibe coding
Sonnet 4.5 vs. Opus 4.1: Speed Today or Maintainability Tomorrow?
October 1, 2025 - One of the quiet but impactful improvements in Sonnet 4.5 was how it handled error recovery. Earlier, Claude-based runs struggled with unterminated string literals, tripping over contractions like We’ll and I’d.
Bind AI IDE
blog.getbind.co › 2025 › 09 › 30 › claude-sonnet-4-5-vs-gpt-5-vs-claude-opus-4-1-ultimate-coding-comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs GPT-5 vs Claude Opus 4.1 – Ultimate Coding Comparison
September 30, 2025 - Anthropic calls its newly released Claude Sonnet 4.5 the best coding model in the world. It’s a refined upgrade over the Opus line, with a focused agenda: to excel at long-running autonomous agent workflows, software engineering tasks, and ...
Skywork
skywork.ai › home › claude sonnet 4.5 vs claude opus: which one should you choose?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus: which one should you choose? - Skywork ai
October 3, 2025 - A: Yes, the data shows clear gains on software-focused evaluations for Claude Sonnet 4.5. It retains context for much longer, which is critical for complex debugging and large code refactoring projects. Q2: How much more expensive is Claude Opus compared to Sonnet?
Anthropic
anthropic.com › news › claude-sonnet-4-5
Introducing Claude Sonnet 4.5
September 29, 2025 - Claude Sonnet 4.5 is our most powerful model to date. See footnotes for methodology. Experts in finance, law, medicine, and STEM found Sonnet 4.5 shows dramatically better domain-specific knowledge and reasoning compared to older models, including Opus 4.1.
Claude Docs
docs.claude.com › claude › docs › models-overview
Models overview - Claude Docs
If you're unsure which model to use, we recommend starting with Claude Sonnet 4.5.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/anthropic › coding: opus 4.5 vs sonnet 4.5
r/Anthropic on Reddit: Coding: Opus 4.5 vs Sonnet 4.5
3 weeks ago -
How do you compare using Opus vs Sonnet when generating code? Is their a way to quantify, or at least describe, the different results? Are there scenarios where it makes more sense to just use Sonnet rather than Opus? Or should Opus be used 100% of the time, budget permitting?
Top answer 1 of 5
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In my totally personal experience, if you want a long rambling session where you plan and implement iteratively, Sonnet is your wo/man. But if you want to cut that down, spend a large amount of effort (on your part) making an initial plan, and then mostly one shotting after that, ask Opus. Sonnet can do this too so at least IME Sonnet is a good all around model. Opus, at least IME, struggles with long sessions.
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Depends what your time is worth. Opus is 66% more expensive than sonnet which turns out to about 50% overall since it's more token efficient. From my experience opus generally provides slightly better code, makes fewer mistakes (less review for me), requires less turns and i like it's coding style better than sonnet. So with all that time savings is it worth the extra 50% ? Also that number should be less than 50% since you get work done with less requests, less bugs and better code quality.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/claudeai › sonnet 4.5 vs opus 4.1
r/ClaudeAI on Reddit: Sonnet 4.5 vs Opus 4.1
September 29, 2025 -
I've been using fully Claude Opus 4.1 in my terminal setup for coding, reasoning, and agent-like tasks. it's been solid for complex workflows. But now that Sonnet 4.5 is out, I'm wondering if I should switch. From benchmarks, it seems to match or beat Opus in areas like coding (higher scores on SWE-Bench and agentic tasks), visual reasoning, and handling nuanced instructions with better efficiency for iterative sessions. If you've tried both in a CLI/terminal environment, what's your take? Does Sonnet hold up for deep reasoning and long-chain planning, or does Opus still edge it out there?
For complex workflows, would you recommend switching? Experiences appreciated!
Top answer 1 of 5
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I just tried it and opus 4.1 is still superior. Had a cookie issue that sonnet 4.5 introduced and after 5+ attempts to fix it, I switched back to opus 4.1 and it fixed it in one try. This is just one scenario but Makes me think the benchmarks are meaningless Update: I had sonnet 4.5 also working on a different issue and it decided to create a completely new simplified file instead of just modifying the one we’ve been working on. Maybe this model just needs very specific instructions but it was pretty much obvious to opus 4.1.
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Better than Opus so far, for me.
Cosmic
cosmicjs.com › blog › claude sonnet 4.5 vs opus 4.5: a real-world comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Opus 4.5: A Real-World Comparison | Cosmic
November 25, 2025 - At highest effort, Opus 4.5 exceeds Sonnet 4.5 by 4.3 percentage points while using 48% fewer tokens · As AJ Orbach, CEO of Text2SQL.ai noted: "The effort parameter is brilliant. Claude Opus 4.5 feels dynamic rather than overthinking."
AceCloud
acecloud.ai › blog › claude-opus-4-5-vs-gemini-3-pro-vs-sonnet-4-5
Claude Opus 4.5 Vs Gemini 3 Pro Vs Sonnet 4.5 Comparison Guide
November 25, 2025 - Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you care most about frontier coding performance, deep reasoning and long-horizon agents – and you can afford higher token prices. Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 if you want most of Opus’ power at lower cost for day-to-day ...
Skywork
skywork.ai › home › claude sonnet 4.5 vs claude opus avis pratique
Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus Avis pratique - Skywork ai
October 7, 2025 - Sécurité et alignement : Sonnet a été entraîné avec plus de mesures de sécurité et de classificateurs ; pour beaucoup d’utilisateurs, cela signifie moins de sorties étranges ou risquées lors des sessions à haute autonomie.
Simon Willison
simonwillison.net › 2025 › Nov › 24 › claude-opus
Claude Opus 4.5, and why evaluating new LLMs is increasingly difficult
November 24, 2025 - The core characteristics of Opus 4.5 are a 200,000 token context (same as Sonnet), 64,000 token output limit (also the same as Sonnet), and a March 2025 “reliable knowledge cutoff” (Sonnet 4.5 is January, Haiku 4.5 is February).
Medium
medium.com › @ayaanhaider.dev › sonnet-4-5-vs-haiku-4-5-vs-opus-4-1-which-claude-model-actually-works-best-in-real-projects-7183c0dc2249
Sonnet 4.5 vs Haiku 4.5 vs Opus 4.1 — Which Claude Model Actually Works Best in Real Projects | by Ayaan haider | Medium
October 18, 2025 - Sonnet 4.5 Sonnet is the all-rounder. It’s the model I trust for daily work — writing logic, managing state, connecting APIs, and handling multiple files. It’s reliable, consistent, and doesn’t freeze easily.