Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 are closely matched at 51.7 and 49.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Claude Sonnet 5 is 2.5x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Anthropic · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 51.7 and 49.3.
In the 14 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Opus 4.8 wins 11; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Claude Sonnet 5 is roughly 2.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude Opus 4.8
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 11 of 14 exact shared results
Choose Claude Sonnet 5
- cost matters — it's about 2.5x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
26 reported for Claude Opus 4.8 · 22 for Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Opus 4.8 outperforms in 11 benchmarks (CharXiv-R, DeepSWE 1.1, FrontierCode 1.1, Humanity's Last Exam, OfficeQA Pro, OSWorld-Verified, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Multimodal, SWE-Bench Pro, SWE-Bench Verified, Toolathlon), while Claude Sonnet 5 is better at 3 benchmarks (BrowseComp, HealthBench Professional, Terminal-Bench 2.0).
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, Claude Opus 4.8 ($5.00/1M tokens) is 2.5x more expensive than Claude Sonnet 5 ($2.00/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude Opus 4.8 ($25.00/1M tokens) is 2.5x more expensive than Claude Sonnet 5 ($10.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 4.8 is more expensive than Claude Sonnet 5.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 1,000,000 tokens. Claude Opus 4.8 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 5 is limited to 64,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Sonnet 5
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude Opus 4.8 was released on 2026-05-28, while Claude Sonnet 5 was released on 2026-06-30.
Claude Sonnet 5 is 1 month newer than Claude Opus 4.8.
May 28, 2026
3 months ago
Jun 30, 2026
1 months ago
1mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude Opus 4.8 is available from Anthropic, Vertex AI. Claude Sonnet 5 is available from Anthropic.
Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Sonnet 5
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5.