Beam 1.0 vs Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 4.8 leads the LLM Stats Score 49.8 to 44.6. Beam 1.0 is 16.7x cheaper per token.
Reflection AI · Anthropic · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude Opus 4.8 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 49.8 to 44.6, ranking #21 overall.
In the 9 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Opus 4.8 wins 9; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Beam 1.0 is roughly 16.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Beam 1.0 also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Beam 1.0
- cost matters — it's about 16.7x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Claude Opus 4.8
- overall performance matters — it scores 49.8 and ranks #21 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 9 of 9 exact shared results
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
22 reported for Beam 1.0 · 27 for Claude Opus 4.8
Beam 1.0 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Claude Opus 4.8 is better at 9 benchmarks (BrowseComp, DeepSearchQA, DeepSWE 1.1, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, MCP Atlas, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Pro, SWE-Bench Verified).
Claude Opus 4.8 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Beam 1.0 ($0.40/1M tokens) is 12.5x cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8 ($5.00/1M tokens).
For output processing, Beam 1.0 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 20.8x cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8 ($25.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 4.8 is more expensive than Beam 1.0.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Beam 1.0 accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Claude Opus 4.8's 1,000,000 tokens. Beam 1.0 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Claude Opus 4.8 is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Claude Opus 4.8 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Beam 1.0 does not.
Claude Opus 4.8 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Beam 1.0
Claude Opus 4.8
License
Usage and distribution terms
Beam 1.0 is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Claude Opus 4.8 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Beam 1.0 was released on 2026-10-16, while Claude Opus 4.8 was released on 2026-05-28.
Beam 1.0 is 5 months newer than Claude Opus 4.8.
Oct 16, 2026
4 days ago
4mo newerMay 28, 2026
4 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Beam 1.0 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-06-30, while Claude Opus 4.8's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Beam 1.0's training data extends to 2026-06-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude Opus 4.8's cutoff date.
Jun 2026
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Provider Availability
Beam 1.0 is available from Together, Reflection AI. Claude Opus 4.8 is available from Anthropic, DeepInfra, Vertex AI.
Beam 1.0
Claude Opus 4.8
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Beam 1.0 and Claude Opus 4.8 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Beam 1.0 vs Claude Opus 4.8.