Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8
Anthropic says Sonnet 5 closes the gap with Opus 4.8 — at a fraction of the price. Compare pricing, agentic coding and knowledge-work benchmarks, and context window.
Comparing 2 models · Prices last verified
Verdict
On knowledge work the two are effectively tied (Anthropic's Elo: Sonnet 5 1618 vs Opus 4.8 1615), yet Sonnet 5 costs ~40% less at the standard rate ($3/$15 vs $5/$25) and ~60% less during the launch promo ($2/$10 through Aug 31, 2026). Opus 4.8 still leads on agentic coding (69.2% vs 63.2%) and on some alignment metrics, so it remains the pick for the hardest engineering and highest-stakes autonomous work. For most workloads, Sonnet 5 is the better value.
Pricing Comparison
| Model | Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5Best value | Anthropic | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1M | balanced |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M | flagship |
Model Breakdown
Anthropic
$2.00
per 1M input
Claude Sonnet 5 is Anthropic's most agentic Sonnet model yet (released June 30, 2026) — it plans, uses tools like browsers and terminals, and runs multi-step tasks autonomously, even checking its own output. It matches Opus 4.8 on knowledge work and lands just behind it on agentic coding, at a fraction of the cost. Launch pricing is $2/$10 per million tokens through Aug 31, 2026, then the standard $3/$15.
Anthropic
$5.00
per 1M input
Claude Opus 4.8 is Anthropic's most capable generally available model in the Opus family.
Our Verdict
On knowledge work the two are effectively tied (Anthropic's Elo: Sonnet 5 1618 vs Opus 4.8 1615), yet Sonnet 5 costs ~40% less at the standard rate ($3/$15 vs $5/$25) and ~60% less during the launch promo ($2/$10 through Aug 31, 2026). Opus 4.8 still leads on agentic coding (69.2% vs 63.2%) and on some alignment metrics, so it remains the pick for the hardest engineering and highest-stakes autonomous work. For most workloads, Sonnet 5 is the better value.
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