Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5

$2.19 / task
Wins 1 of 5 benchmarks
$0.88 / task
Wins 1 of 5 benchmarks
Opus 581.6
Sonnet 5.5—
Opus 520
Sonnet 5.525.2
Opus 5at high1,319.6
Sonnet 5.5at xhigh1,287.2
Opus 5at max27.3
Sonnet 5.5—
Opus 5at high1,516.3
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/s51106
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.