Last refreshed 2026-09-22. Next refresh: weekly.
Why use Claude Opus 5.5 on GCP Vertex AI?
GCP Vertex AI offers Claude Opus 5.5 with pay-as-you-go pricing at $4.00/1M input tokens. Vertex AI is Google Cloud's managed AI platform, offering access to Gemini models and hundreds of partner models alongside tools for fine-tuning, grounding, vector search, and end-to-end MLOps pipelines.
Compare Claude Opus 5.5 across 4 providers to find the best fit for your use caseSetup recipe
Python + curlpip install google-cloud-aiplatformexport GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=...import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")claude-opus-5-5Request example
import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
# Reads GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT from env; authenticates via Application Default Credentials
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")
model = GenerativeModel("claude-opus-5-5")
response = model.generate_content("Hello")
print(response.text)Gotchas
- For Google-published models use the model name directly, e.g. "gemini-2.0-flash-001". For third-party publishers (Anthropic, Meta, etc.) use the full publisher path, e.g. "publishers/anthropic/models/claude-3-5-sonnet-v2@20241022".
- The examples expect GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT; rename it only if your application config maps the new variable.
Compare Claude Opus 5.5 Across Providers
| Provider | Input (per 1M) | Output (per 1M) |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| AWS Bedrock | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| GCP Vertex AI | $4.00 | $20.00 |
| Microsoft Foundry | $4.00 | $20.00 |
Pricing
| Type | Price (per 1M) |
|---|---|
| Input tokens | $4.00 |
| Output tokens | $20.00 |
Capabilities
About Claude Opus 5.5
Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5, first model in the Claude 5.5 family, released September 22, 2026. First-party positioning: long-running agentic coding and knowledge work; performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 on most work; typical workloads about 40% less cost than Opus 5 at default settings (list input/output 20% below Opus 5; cache reads 60% below). Claude API id claude-opus-5-5. List price $4 per 1M input and $20 per 1M output; cache reads $0.20 per 1M tokens (0.05x base input); 5-minute cache writes $5; 1-hour cache writes $8; Batch API 50% off ($2/$10).