Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Side-by-side API pricing and Artificial Analysis performance for Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic) and Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic). Green cells mark the better value in each row.
Prices updated Jul 22, 2026, 1:31 AM UTC · refreshed hourly
| Claude Opus 4.6 Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Input $/1M | $5.00 | $2.00 |
| Output $/1M | $25.00 | $10.00 |
| Blended $/1M (3:1) | $10.00 | $4.00 |
| RAG example (30K in / 2K out) | $0.2 | $0.08 |
| Quality & speed | ||
| Intelligence Index | 37.8 | 53.4 |
| Coding Index | — | 71.5 |
| Agentic Index | — | 46.7 |
| Output speed (tok/s) | 57 | 88 |
| Time to first token | 1.85s | 93.55s |
| Specs | ||
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Input modalities | text, image, file | text, image, file |
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower blended API price at $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 input:output mix), versus $10.00 for the other model. Prices are live from OpenRouter and refresh about hourly.
Which is better for RAG workloads?
For a typical RAG request (30K input / 2K output tokens), Claude Sonnet 5 costs about $0.08 per request versus $0.2. Also compare context windows: Claude Opus 4.6 offers 1M and Claude Sonnet 5 offers 1M.
Which scores higher on Artificial Analysis benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5 leads on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (53.4 vs 37.8). Check coding and agentic indices on this page for workload-specific tradeoffs.