Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5: which should I use?
Claude Opus 4.8 costs 1.7× more per blended million tokens than Claude Sonnet 5. Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window (500,000 tokens). Default to Claude Sonnet 5 unless you specifically need Claude Opus 4.8's edge.
Spec comparison
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Sonnet 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $5.00/M | $3.00/M ✓ |
| Price (output) | $25.00/M | $15.00/M ✓ |
| Blended price | $10.00/M | $6.00/M ✓ |
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 500,000 tokens |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Released | 2026-04 | 2026-08 |
| Speed | 58 t/s | Not measured |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $10.00 | $6.00 | $4.00 (1.7×) |
| 10,000,000 | $100.00 | $60.00 | $40.00 (1.7×) |
| 100,000,000 | $1000.00 | $600.00 | $400.00 (1.7×) |
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if…
- ✓Elite coding and multi-step reasoning
- ✓Strong instruction following on ambiguous prompts
- ✓Extended-thinking mode
- ✓Complex, multi-step tasks where Fable 5’s premium isn’t justified.
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 if…
- ✓Frontier intelligence at Sonnet economics
- ✓Fast interactive coding performance
- ✓Reliable structured output and extended thinking
- ✓Production workloads that need near-Opus quality with better speed and cost.
Run this exact matchup right now
Send the same prompt to Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 FreeFAQ
Is Claude Opus 4.8 cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper, at $6.00 per million blended tokens vs $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.8.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Both models support 500,000 tokens of context.
Can Claude Opus 4.8 replace Claude Sonnet 5 for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Elite coding and multi-step reasoning (Claude Opus 4.8) vs Frontier intelligence at Sonnet economics (Claude Sonnet 5) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.
Neither of these? See Claude Opus 4.8 alternatives or Claude Sonnet 5 alternatives.
Related
Pricing verified 2026-06-07. Specs verified 2026-08-08.