Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 vs Tencent: Hy4 preview

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 is the pick when you need image input, Tencent: Hy4 preview when cost matters at scale.

Key numbers

SpecAnthropic: Claude Sonnet 5Tencent: Hy4 preview
ProviderAnthropicTencent
Input price (per 1M tokens)$2.00$0.83
Output price (per 1M tokens)$10.00$2.50
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$4.00$1.25
Cheaper than … of all models we track15%35%
Context window1M tokens (~1,500 pages)1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages)
Larger context than … of all models69%81%
Max output per response128K tokens (~96,000 words)64K tokens (~48,000 words)
Input typestext, image, filetext
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2026-06-302026-08-28
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5Tencent: Hy4 previewDifference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$350$113Tencent: Hy4 preview saves $237
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$340$125Tencent: Hy4 preview saves $215
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$360$130Tencent: Hy4 preview saves $230
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$220$81.73Tencent: Hy4 preview saves $138
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$110$44.20Tencent: Hy4 preview saves $65.80

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityAnthropic: Claude Sonnet 5Tencent: Hy4 previewWhat it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes✓ Yesspend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes—read screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input✓ Yes—accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search✓ Yes—answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)—✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities——read token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

Which should you choose?

Choose Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 if…

  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; Tencent: Hy4 preview does not advertise it
  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; Tencent: Hy4 preview does not advertise it
  • you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; Tencent: Hy4 preview does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response

Choose Tencent: Hy4 preview if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 69% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($113 vs $350 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 does not advertise it

Frequently asked questions

Is Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 better than Tencent: Hy4 preview?

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 is the pick when you need image input, Tencent: Hy4 preview when cost matters at scale. In short: Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 when you need image input, you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search, you generate long outputs in one go; Tencent: Hy4 preview when cost matters at scale, you need seed (reproducible sampling).

Which is cheaper, Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 or Tencent: Hy4 preview?

Tencent: Hy4 preview is cheaper: $1.25 vs $4.00 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 69% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $113 against $350.

How much do Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 and Tencent: Hy4 preview cost per million tokens?

Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens; Tencent: Hy4 preview costs $0.83 input and $2.50 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 or Tencent: Hy4 preview?

Tencent: Hy4 preview: 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5.

Do Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 and Tencent: Hy4 preview support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5: yes, Tencent: Hy4 preview: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5: yes, Tencent: Hy4 preview: yes.

Can Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 or Tencent: Hy4 preview read images?

Only Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 accepts image input; Tencent: Hy4 preview is text-only for input.

Is Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 or Tencent: Hy4 preview free to use?

No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.

What is the maximum output length of Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 and Tencent: Hy4 preview?

Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 can write up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response; Tencent: Hy4 preview up to 64K (about 48,000 words).

When were Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 and Tencent: Hy4 preview released?

Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 was listed on 2026-06-30; Tencent: Hy4 preview on 2026-08-28.

About the two models

Compare Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 with other models

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