Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
A direct API-pricing comparison between Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 4.6. Below: every cost dimension side by side, then the bottom line for a typical workload.
Bottom line
For a typical 5K-in / 1K-out request, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the cheaper choice at $0.030 per call — 1.7× less than Claude Opus 4.8 at $0.050.
| Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | |
|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M tokens | $5.00 | $3.00 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $25.00 | $15.00 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.500 | $0.300 |
| Context window | 200K | 200K |
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
Green = cheaper on that line. Prices are estimates from public pricing pages; verify against Anthropic and Anthropic before relying on them.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?
On output tokens — usually the dominant cost — Claude Opus 4.8 charges $25.00 per million versus $15.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6. The right pick depends on your input/output ratio and how much you can serve from cache. Use the calculator to model your exact traffic.