THE TICKER · HEAD-TO-HEAD · CHECKED DAILY · LAST CHANGE 2026-07-25
CLAUDE OPUS 5 VS CLAUDE OPUS 4.8
Anthropic vs Anthropic, in USD per million tokens, verified daily against public list prices. Same jobs, both meters running.
Effectively a tie: for the same job (a 1,000-token prompt with a 3,000-token reply), Claude Opus 5 and Claude Opus 4.8 bill within 5% of each other. Pick on quality, latency or taste — price won't settle this one.
SIDE BY SIDE
| Claude Opus 5 → | Claude Opus 4.8 → | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Input / MTok | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| Output / MTok | $25.00 | $25.00 |
| Output multiple | 5.0x | 5.0x |
| 1K prompt + 3K reply | $0.08 | $0.08 |
SAME JOB, BOTH BILLS
| Scenario | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A typical prompt | $0.02 | $0.02 | — |
| A 20-turn conversation | $0.12 | $0.12 | — |
| Summarizing a 10-page document | $0.12 | $0.12 | — |
| One agent run | $0.31 | $0.31 | — |
| A code review request | $0.10 | $0.10 | — |
Output sizes use the same editorial ratios as the Burn Calculator. Estimates, not invoices — and price is not a benchmark: the cheaper model is only a bargain if it does the job.
SETTLE IT WITH YOUR OWN PROMPT
Paste a real prompt into the Burn Calculator and see what it costs on Claude Opus 5, Claude Opus 4.8 and the other 14 models on the board — plus how much of it is waste either way.