Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5

$2.19 / task
Wins 2 of 5 benchmarks
$0.88 / task
Wins 2 of 5 benchmarks
Opus 551.3
Sonnet 5.545.8
Opus 534.3
Sonnet 5.543.9
Opus 554.3
Sonnet 5.559.4
Opus 5at max1,471
Sonnet 5.5at xhigh1,465
Opus 581.6
Sonnet 5.5—

Specs

SpecOpus 5Sonnet 5.5
Input, per 1M$5$2
Output, per 1M$25$10
Cost per task?$2.19$0.88
Speed, tok/s55106
Context1M1M
WeightsClosedClosed
ReleasedJul 2026Sep 2026
See images✓✓
Read PDFsPartial✓
Hear audio——
Watch video——
Call tools✓✓
Force a tool callPartial—
Return strict JSON✓✓
Search the web?✓
Run code?✓
Use a computer?✓

What breaks when you switch

Opus 5 → Sonnet 5.5
No forced tool use›

Forced tool_choice any or tool returns HTTP 400; remove the forced choice.

Replace disabled thinking›

Disabled thinking returns HTTP 400; use between_tools for the lowest thinking setting.

No manual thinking budgets›

Manual thinking budgets and extra between_tools fields return HTTP 400; remove manual budgets and send between_tools without display, budget_tokens or block_binding.

Remove sampling parameters›

Non-default temperature, top_p or top_k returns HTTP 400; remove these parameters.

No assistant prefill›

A prefilled final assistant turn returns HTTP 400; remove that prefill.

Old computer tool rejected · Claude API / Google Cloud›

The computer_20251124 tool returns HTTP 400 on the Claude API and Google Cloud; use computer_toolset_20260801 there.

Sonnet 5.5 → Opus 5
Nothing known.