Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5: which should I use?
Claude Opus 5 costs 5.0× more per blended million tokens than Claude Sonnet 5. Claude Opus 5 has the larger context window (1,000,000 tokens). Default to Claude Sonnet 5 unless you specifically need Claude Opus 5's edge.
Spec comparison
| Claude Opus 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $15.00/M | $3.00/M ✓ |
| Price (output) | $75.00/M | $15.00/M ✓ |
| Blended price | $30.00/M | $6.00/M ✓ |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens ✓ | 500,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens ✓ | 64,000 tokens |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Released | 2026-08 | 2026-08 |
| Speed | Not measured | Not measured |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $30.00 | $6.00 | $24.00 (5.0×) |
| 10,000,000 | $300.00 | $60.00 | $240.00 (5.0×) |
| 100,000,000 | $3000.00 | $600.00 | $2400.00 (5.0×) |
Choose Claude Opus 5 if…
- ✓Anthropic's strongest reasoning and coding
- ✓1M-token context
- ✓Extended-thinking mode for complex agentic work
- ✓The hardest reasoning, coding, and long-horizon agentic tasks.
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 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 FreeFAQ
Is Claude Opus 5 cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper, at $6.00 per million blended tokens vs $30.00 for Claude Opus 5.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 5 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Opus 5 has the larger context window: 1,000,000 tokens vs 500,000.
Can Claude Opus 5 replace Claude Sonnet 5 for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Anthropic's strongest reasoning and coding (Claude Opus 5) 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 5 alternatives or Claude Sonnet 5 alternatives.
Related
Pricing verified 2026-08-09. Specs verified 2026-08-08.