Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Llama Guard 4 12B

Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost

Data updated on September 30, 2026· 217 models

AnthropicSonnet 5.5

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is Anthropic's Sonnet-class model for well-scoped everyday work, succeeding Claude Sonnet 5 as a direct upgrade.

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Reasoning estimated
▲
Speed estimated
Input
Output
Context
▲1 M tokens
Max output
▲128 K
Input, $ per 1M tokens
$2.00
Output, $ per 1M tokens
$10.00
Cache read, $ per 1M
$0.200
Batch (input / output)
$1.00 / $5.00
Tool calling
Yes
Released
▲09/28/2026
Knowledge cutoff
2026-06
API id
anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5
Meta4 12B

Llama Guard 4 is a Llama 4 Scout-derived multimodal pretrained model, fine-tuned for content safety classification.

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Reasoning estimated
Speed estimated
▲
Input
Output
Context
164 K tokens
Max output
16 K
Input, $ per 1M tokens
▲$0.180
Output, $ per 1M tokens
▲$0.180
Cache read, $ per 1M
—
Batch (input / output)
—
Tool calling
No
Released
04/30/2025
Knowledge cutoff
—
API id
meta-llama/llama-guard-4-12b
Third model (optional)
text image audio video PDF / file reasoning (1 to 5, estimated by family) speed (1 to 4, estimated by family)▲ best value among the selected

Which is the better API choice: Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Llama Guard 4 12B?

  • Llama Guard 4 12B: cheapest input (91% less than Claude Sonnet 5.5)
  • Llama Guard 4 12B: cheapest output
  • Claude Sonnet 5.5: largest context (1 M)
  • Claude Sonnet 5.5: the newest (09/28/2026)
  • Claude Sonnet 5.5: most reasoning (estimated)
  • Llama Guard 4 12B: the fastest (estimated)

Llama Guard 4 12B costs 91% less on input and 98% less on output than Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($0.180 / $0.180 versus $2.00 / $10.00 per million tokens). Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a reasoning mode. Claude Sonnet 5.5 offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.

What would your product cost?

Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
$70.00/mo
Llama Guard 4 12B
$3.42/mo

With Llama Guard 4 12B you save $66.58 a month versus Claude Sonnet 5.5 (95% less).

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Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model

Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.

76tokens approx.287 characters

Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)

  1. 1Llama Guard 4 12B Meta$0.014
  2. 2Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
  3. 3Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic$0.152
  4. 4Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
  5. 5Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
  6. 6Claude Opus 4.8 Anthropic$0.380
  7. 7Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
  8. 8Claude Fable 5 Anthropic$0.760

Popular comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which is the better API choice: Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Llama Guard 4 12B?

Llama Guard 4 12B costs 91% less on input and 98% less on output than Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($0.180 / $0.180 versus $2.00 / $10.00 per million tokens). Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a reasoning mode. Claude Sonnet 5.5 offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.

Which is cheaper: Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama Guard 4 12B?

Llama Guard 4 12B is cheaper: $0.180 per million input tokens and $0.180 per million output tokens, versus $2.00 / $10.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.

Which has more context: Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama Guard 4 12B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts 1 M tokens of context; Llama Guard 4 12B accepts 164 K.

Which is newer: Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama Guard 4 12B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 was released on 09/28/2026; Llama Guard 4 12B on 04/30/2025.

What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama Guard 4 12B?

With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Claude Sonnet 5.5: $70.00; Llama Guard 4 12B: $3.42 a month, at list price.

Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?

From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.

What does price per million tokens mean?

It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.

Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.