Opus follows instructions better than sonnet for big tasks, but it can sometimes overthink or overengineer something. Sonnet tends to be more direct but can sometimes not follow instructions as good as opus. I'd say opus is great at planning and executing big tasks, while sonnet is best for simpler tasks that dont need the intelligence of opus.or at least plan with opus, code with sonnet, is another way. Answer from Hauven on reddit.com
Reddit
reddit.com › r/claudeai › are you seeing big difference between sonnet vs. opus?
r/ClaudeAI on Reddit: Are you seeing big difference between Sonnet vs. Opus?
June 22, 2025 -
I’m on the $100/month plan. 1-2 prompts in I got my limit on Opus, then I spend most of my coding day on Sonnet.
Whenever I am on Opus, it isn’t obvious it’s writing code that Sonnet can’t. I see a bigger difference between prompts that do vs. do not have “ultrathink” rather than Sonnet/Opus.
Does anyone with more experience have a clear perspective on Sonnet vs Opus? Even on the benchmarks they are about the same.
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Opus follows instructions better than sonnet for big tasks, but it can sometimes overthink or overengineer something. Sonnet tends to be more direct but can sometimes not follow instructions as good as opus. I'd say opus is great at planning and executing big tasks, while sonnet is best for simpler tasks that dont need the intelligence of opus.or at least plan with opus, code with sonnet, is another way.
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Opus is absolutely worth it for me and a large codebase at least. It's not just the line of code being different, it's the entire logic process. Basically, it's much more efficient which saves me time.
Videos
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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 4.1 Opus came out swinging with energy. The opening line—”Let’s talk real talk: You’re not getting replaced by AI”—hits hard and immediately establishes a conversational vibe. It leaned heavily into metaphors (the orchestra conductor theme) and maintained a consistently upbeat, almost motivational speaker energy throughout. 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.
Writingmate
writingmate.ai › blog › claude-sonnet-vs-opus
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude 3 Opus: A Comprehensive Comparison | Writingmate Blog
January 31, 2025 - Claude 3 Opus, on the other hand, focuses on delivering deep analytical capabilities, making it ideal for more intensive tasks like research, strategy, and high-level content creation. Many think that there is Claude 3.5 Opus, but… not yet. So we will compare models that actually exist, Claude3opus and Claude 3.5 sonnet, giving features comparison table with competitors.
Anthropic
anthropic.com › news › claude-4
Introducing Claude 4
Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 are hybrid models offering two modes: near-instant responses and extended thinking for deeper reasoning. The Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise Claude plans include both models and extended thinking, with Sonnet 4 also available to free users.
Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com › item
I still feel like the difference between Sonnet and Opus is a bit unclear. Somew... | Hacker News
October 25, 2024 - And finally, in the table in the blogpost, Opus isn't even included? It seems to me like Opus is the best model they have, but they don't want people to default using it, maybe the ROI is lower on Opus or something · When I manually tested it, I feel like Opus gives slightly better replies ...
Reddit
reddit.com › r/claudeai › how big of a difference is there between opus and sonnet for coding?
r/ClaudeAI on Reddit: How big of a difference is there between Opus and Sonnet for coding?
July 27, 2025 -
I’m seeing a lot of discussion about using Opus to plan and sonnet to code.
What is the main difference between the two on coding tasks?
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.