Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5.5
A side-by-side of live API prices, providers, speed, usage and benchmarks. No verdict: the right choice depends on your workload.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 per 1M input and $10.00 per 1M output tokens at the standard tier, via Anthropic; Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00 and $20.00, via Anthropic. At a 3:1 input:output mix, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 50% cheaper than Claude Opus 5.5.
Why these two are compared
Both are Anthropic models released in September 2026: Sonnet 5.5 for well-scoped everyday work, Opus 5.5 as the flagship for demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work. The choice is usually a cost-per-task trade-off within one vendor.
Side by side
| Measure | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-22 |
| Standard price, input / output per 1M | $2.00 / $10.00 | $4.00 / $20.00 |
| Blended price (3:1) | $4.00 | $8.00 |
| Cheapest standard provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Cache read per 1M | $0.10 | $0.20 |
| Providers at the standard tier | 5 | 5 |
| Context window (tokens) | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Max output (tokens) | 128,000 | 128,000 |
| Input modalities | text, image, file | text, image, file |
| Long-prompt pricing | No threshold listed | No threshold listed |
| Fastest endpoint | 135 tok/sGoogle (US region) | 176 tok/sAnthropic (Fast tier) |
| Lowest latency | 942 msGoogle (Europe region) | 794 msGoogle (Europe region) |
| OpenRouter tokens (2026-10-16) | 396.5B | 933.37B |
| AA intelligence | 56.0 | 57.6 |
| AA coding | Not reported | Not reported |
| AA agentic | Not reported | Not reported |
“Not reported” means the source publishes no value. AA scores are the Artificial Analysis indexes reported through OpenRouter (CC BY 4.0), not SF·SIX measurements.
Cost for three example workloads
| Workload | Claude Sonnet 5.5 / month | Claude Opus 5.5 / month |
|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot50,000 requests × 1,500 in / 400 out tokens | $350.00 | $700.00 |
| RAG / research assistant20,000 requests × 8,000 in / 700 out tokens | $460.00 | $920.00 |
| Batch summarisation10,000 requests × 10,000 in / 500 out tokens | $250.00 | $500.00 |
Standard headline prices; caching and long-context surcharges not included. Price your own workload.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 providers
| Provider and terms | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Throughput | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Bedrock | $2.00 | $10.00 | 106 tok/s | 2.40 s |
| Anthropic | $2.00 | $10.00 | 98 tok/s | 1.95 s |
| AzureGlobal endpoint | $2.00 | $10.00 | 99 tok/s | 1.05 s |
| Claude Platform on AWS | $2.00 | $10.00 | 101 tok/s | 1.95 s |
| GoogleGlobal endpoint | $2.00 | $10.00 | 112 tok/s | 3.37 s |
| AzureUS region | $2.20 | $11.00 | Not reported | Not reported |
| GoogleEurope region | $2.20 | $11.00 | 100 tok/s | 942 ms |
| GoogleUS region | $2.20 | $11.00 | 135 tok/s | 1.10 s |
Claude Opus 5.5 providers
| Provider and terms | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Throughput | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Bedrock | $4.00 | $20.00 | 75 tok/s | 4.61 s |
| Anthropic | $4.00 | $20.00 | 74 tok/s | 3.48 s |
| AzureGlobal endpoint | $4.00 | $20.00 | 78 tok/s | 2.84 s |
| Claude Platform on AWS | $4.00 | $20.00 | 76 tok/s | 4.23 s |
| GoogleGlobal endpoint | $4.00 | $20.00 | 80 tok/s | 2.95 s |
| Amazon Bedrockeu-west-1 region | $4.40 | $22.00 | 75 tok/s | 4.46 s |
| Amazon Bedrockus-east-1 region | $4.40 | $22.00 | 67 tok/s | 3.88 s |
| AzureUS region | $4.40 | $22.00 | Not reported | Not reported |
| GoogleEurope region | $4.40 | $22.00 | 95 tok/s | 794 ms |
| GoogleUS region | $4.40 | $22.00 | 91 tok/s | 2.40 s |
Related comparisons
Sources and method
Prices are USD per 1M tokens at the standard service tier in the default region: the cheapest qualifying provider per model, with flex, batch, priority and fast endpoints and unusually low outliers never used as the headline. “Blended” weights input and output 3:1. Prices: OpenRouter, observed at the times on each model page. Speed: OpenRouter, previous 30 minutes. Usage: OpenRouter rankings, latest full UTC day (CC BY 4.0).