Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Opus 4.8 (2026) and Claude Sonnet 5 (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic. Both ship a 1m-token context window. On SWE-bench Verified, Claude Opus 4.8 leads by 3.4 pts. On pricing, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2/1M input tokens versus $5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

Claude Sonnet 5 is ~150% cheaper at $2/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.8 only for coding workflow support.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalClaude Opus 4.8Claude Sonnet 5
Best forreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agentsreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsCoding, RAG, and Agents
Context window1m1m
Cheapest output$25/1M tokens$10/1M tokens
Provider routes6 tracked5 tracked
Shared benchmarksSWE-bench Verified leader12 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Claude Opus 4.8 when...
  • Claude Opus 4.8 holds a shared-benchmark lead on SWE-bench Verified, ahead by 3.4 points.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 uniquely exposes Computer use and Parallel agents in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.8 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 when...
  • Claude Sonnet 5 holds a shared-benchmark lead on Terminal-Bench 2.1, ahead by 5.8 points.
  • Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $10/1M tokens.
  • Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 5 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Opus 4.8

$10,250

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 5

$4,100

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic

Estimated monthly gap: $6,150. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Claude Opus 4.8 -> Claude Sonnet 5
  • Provider overlap exists on Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Claude Sonnet 5 is $15/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Computer use and Parallel agents before moving production traffic.
Claude Sonnet 5 -> Claude Opus 4.8
  • Provider overlap exists on Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 is $15/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 adds Computer use and Parallel agents in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2026-05-282026-06-30
Context window1m1m
Parameters——
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyDecoder Only
LicenseProprietaryProprietary
OpennessProprietaryProprietary
WeightsNot releasedNot released
CodeNot releasedUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2026-012026-01

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeClaude Opus 4.8Claude Sonnet 5
Input price$5/1M tokens$2/1M tokens
Output price$25/1M tokens$10/1M tokens
Providers
AnthropicAWS BedrockGCP Vertex AIMicrosoft FoundryOpenRouterVercel AI Gateway
AnthropicAWS BedrockGCP Vertex AIOpenRouterMicrosoft Foundry

Capabilities

CapabilityClaude Opus 4.8Claude Sonnet 5
VisionYesYes
MultimodalYesYes
ReasoningYesYes
JSON / Tool useYesYes
Structured outputsYesYes
Code executionYesYes
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useYesNo
Parallel agentsYesNo

Benchmarks

BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Claude Sonnet 5
SWE-bench Verified88.685.2
SWE-bench Pro69.263.2
Terminal-Bench 2.174.680.4
OSWorld-Verified83.481.2
CursorBench63.824.1
CursorBench62.324.1
CursorBench59.424.1
CursorBench58.024.1
CursorBench56.124.1
CursorBench53.124.1
BrowseComp — Multi-Agent88.586.6
Humanity's Last Exam — With Tools57.957.4

Continue comparing

Model pages
Labs and families
Related comparisons

Popular comparisons for Claude Opus 4.8

Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.