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GPT-4o vs Claude Sonnet 4: Which is Cheaper for Your Use Case?

Choosing between OpenAI's GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 isn't just about quality — it's about cost. Let's break down the pricing for common use cases.

The Pricing

As of April 2026:

• GPT-4o: $2.50 per 1M input tokens, $10.00 per 1M output tokens
• Claude Sonnet 4: $3.00 per 1M input tokens, $15.00 per 1M output tokens

At first glance, GPT-4o is cheaper on both input and output. But the real picture depends on your usage pattern.

Use Case 1: Chatbot (Short Q&A)

For a typical customer support chatbot with ~500 input tokens and ~200 output tokens per request:

• GPT-4o: $0.00135 per request
• Claude Sonnet 4: $0.00180 per request

At 10,000 requests/day, GPT-4o costs $405/month vs Claude's $540/month. GPT-4o wins by 25%.

Use Case 2: Code Generation (Long Output)

For code generation with ~1,000 input tokens and ~2,000 output tokens:

• GPT-4o: $0.0225 per request
• Claude Sonnet 4: $0.0330 per request

Claude is 47% more expensive for code generation. However, if Claude produces better code with fewer retries, the effective cost gap narrows.

Use Case 3: Document Analysis (Long Input)

For analyzing long documents with ~10,000 input tokens and ~500 output tokens:

• GPT-4o: $0.03 per request
• Claude Sonnet 4: $0.0375 per request

Claude is 25% more expensive, but its 200K context window (vs GPT-4o's 128K) means you can analyze longer documents without chunking.

The Verdict

GPT-4o is cheaper for most use cases, but Claude's larger context window and potentially higher quality can offset the cost difference.

Use our cost calculator to model your specific usage and find the cheapest provider.

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