Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5

$1.00 / task
Wins 1 of 18 benchmarks
$0.88 / task
Wins 8 of 18 benchmarks
Sonnet 527.9
Sonnet 5.559.4
Sonnet 51,158.2
Sonnet 5.51,558.1
Sonnet 5at max46.3
Sonnet 5.5at max57.5
Sonnet 52
Sonnet 5.543.9
Sonnet 51,057.3
Sonnet 5.51,634.1
Sonnet 573.7
Sonnet 5.578
Sonnet 539.8
Sonnet 5.5at max70.5
Sonnet 5at xhigh93.2
Sonnet 5.5at xhigh95.8
Sonnet 5at xhigh88.2
Sonnet 5.5at xhigh70.6
Sonnet 5at max37.3
Sonnet 5.5—
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.534.3
Sonnet 5at max44.7
Sonnet 5.5—
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.544.3
Harvey LAB-AA 1.1?
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.5at max2.8
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.5at max75
SpireClimb?
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.5at max1.3
SpireClimb StS1 A20 Heart?
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.5at max0
SpireClimb StS2 A10?
Sonnet 5—
Sonnet 5.5at max2.7

Specs

SpecSonnet 5Sonnet 5.5
Input, per 1M$2$2
Output, per 1M$10$10
Cost per task?$1.00$0.88
Speed, tok/s69106
Context1M1M
WeightsClosedClosed
ReleasedJun 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

Sonnet 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 → Sonnet 5
Nothing known.