Best AI for summarising documents / head-to-head
Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5for summarising documents
Dead heat: 93 each
Same 12 summarising documents tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Tested 13 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
In under 80 words, summarise the disagreement fairly, giving each side equal weight: 'Marketing wants to cut the price to win share, arguing volume will more than compensate. Finance says the last price cut in 2024 produced a 4% volume lift against an 11% margin loss, and would rather spend the same money on retention.'
**Marketing** argues a price cut will drive enough volume growth to offset lower margins, accelerating market-share gains that strengthen the brand's long-term competitive position. **Finance** counters with evidence: the 2024 price cut delivered only a 4% volume increase while eroding margins by 11%, making it a net negative. They propose redirecting equivalent spend toward retention, which preserves margins while protecting existing revenue—a more capital-efficient path to growth. Both sides prioritise growth but disagree on the most effici…
Marketing favours cutting price to boost market share, believing higher volume will offset the lower margin. Finance is more cautious, pointing to 2024's price cut, which delivered only a 4% volume increase but cost 11% in margin. Finance argues that reallocating the same budget toward customer retention would deliver better returns than repeating a strategy with a proven poor trade-off.
Task by task
| Task | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting notes to actions | 10 | 9 |
| Five-bullet summary | 10 | 10 |
| Do not invent | 10 | 10 |
| One-sentence gist | 9 | 10 |
| Preserve the caveat | 10 | 10 |
| Summarise a disagreement | 6 | 9 |
| Extract the decision | 8 | 5 |
| Long to short, no loss | 10 | 10 |
| Summary for a specific reader | 10 | 9 |
| Bullet the risks only | 10 | 10 |
| Headline and standfirst | 9 | 9 |
| Say when there is nothing to summarise | 10 | 10 |
Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5 · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for summarising documents: Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
They tied at 93/100 on our summarising documents suite — for this job, pick on price or the product you already use.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published summarising documents tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More summarising documents head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 · Claude Opus 4.6 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Opus 4.6 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Luna
Full ranking: Best AI for summarising documents · model pages: Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5