claude-opus-5-5 vs claude-sonnet-5
Fourteen priced metrics for the same 2,000-in / 300-out call, with and without provider caching, and what TokenZero's cascade would do with the pair.
At list prices as of 2026-10-26, claude-sonnet-5 costs $3.04 per million blended tokens on a 2,000-in / 300-out call against $6.09 for claude-opus-5-5, 50% less. With the static prefix cached both drop further: $8.30 versus $4.30 per thousand calls. TokenZero routes only prompts its classifier scores simple and holds a 99.8% parity floor.
· Source: provider list prices verified in pricing table 2026-10-26; costs computed by the same code that signs TokenZero receipts
At a glance
- Cheaper per blended token
- claude-sonnet-5 by 50% (computed)
- claude-opus-5-5 blended $/1M
- $6.09 (computed)
- claude-sonnet-5 blended $/1M
- $3.04 (computed)
- Input $/1M
- $4.00 vs $2.00
- Output $/1M
- $20.00 vs $10.00
- Cached input $/1M
- $0.200 vs $0.200
- Cache discount
- 95% vs 90% (computed)
- Monthly at 100k calls
- $1,400 vs $700 (computed)
- Saved per 1M calls
- $7,000 (computed)
- Providers
- anthropic vs anthropic
- Lifecycle
- active, no retirement announced vs active, no retirement announced
- Parity floor for routing
- 99.8% (shadow-eval breaker)
claude-opus-5-5 vs claude-sonnet-5: list prices and the same workload on both (USD, table 2026-10-26)
| Metric | claude-opus-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provider · tier | anthropic · frontier | anthropic · mid | same provider |
| Input $/1M | $4.00 | $2.00 | 50% gap |
| Output $/1M | $20.00 | $10.00 | 50% gap |
| Cached input $/1M | $0.200 | $0.200 | 95% / 90% off input |
| Cache write $/1M | $5.000 | $2.500 | |
| Minimum cacheable prefix | 512 tokens | 1024 tokens | |
| Effective blended $/1M (2,000 in / 300 out) | $6.09 | $3.04 | claude-sonnet-5 50% less |
| Per call | $0.01400 | $0.00700 | $0.00700 |
| Per month at 100k calls | $1,400 | $700 | $700 |
| …with the 1,500-token prefix cached | $830 | $430 | $400 |
| Long-context threshold | single tier | single tier | |
| Processing tiers | speed: fast 2x | speed: fast 2x | |
| Lifecycle | active, no retirement announced | active, no retirement announced | |
| Cheaper sibling (cascade target) | claude-sonnet-5-5 | claude-haiku-5-5 | |
| TokenZero cascade recommendation | claude-opus-5-5 → claude-sonnet-5 | $7,000 saved per 1M calls if every call moved; $2,800 at a 40% simple-prompt share | 99.8% parity floor, breaker on |
Use either model through TokenZero
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://tokenzero.sh
# keep your own keys; cache formatting on, routing advisory, signed receipt per callFree up to $500/month of routed spend; paid plans take 15% of verified savings with a 3x-ROI-or-$0 rule.
What is not on this page
Third-party quality scores (coding ELO, extraction accuracy, reasoning benchmarks) and per-model latency are not shown because TokenZero does not measure them; the numbers above are prices and the arithmetic on them. The latency benchmark shows what the gateway does measure.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, claude-opus-5-5 or claude-sonnet-5?
claude-sonnet-5. At list prices as of 2026-10-26 it costs $3.04 per million blended tokens versus $6.09 for claude-opus-5-5, a 50% gap on a 2,000-input / 300-output call. Per month at 100,000 calls that is $700 versus $1,400.
How much does prompt caching change the claude-opus-5-5 vs claude-sonnet-5 gap?
Cached input costs $0.200 on claude-opus-5-5 and $0.200 on claude-sonnet-5 per million. With a 1,500-token static prefix cached, 100,000 calls cost $830 and $430 respectively; TokenZero's formatter places the breakpoints and sets prompt_cache_key automatically.
Can TokenZero route claude-opus-5-5 traffic to claude-sonnet-5 safely?
Yes, within anthropic: with X-TokenZero-Cascade: auto the classifier scores each prompt and only simple ones move; shadow evaluation re-runs a sample on claude-opus-5-5 and a pair below 99.8% parity is auto-disabled. Moving every call would save $7,000 per million calls; at a 40% simple share it is $2,800.
Is claude-opus-5-5 or claude-sonnet-5 being retired?
claude-opus-5-5: active, no retirement announced. claude-sonnet-5: active, no retirement announced. TokenZero audits flag retired ids and the gateway warns in X-TokenZero-Warning with the provider's replacement.
Related
Price your own workload on claude-opus-5-5 and claude-sonnet-5