When Claude Sonnet may fit
- You need a balance between rate and capability.
- The workload has sustained production volume.
- Evaluation quality is sufficient without the Opus tier.
API cost comparison
Claude Sonnet vs Opus API Cost Comparison
This cost-only comparison applies identical input and output tokens to Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Opus 4.8. It does not rank model intelligence or task quality.
Standard workload comparison
1,000 input tokens + 300 output tokens × 10,000 requests per month, with no cache or batch discount.
Monthly cost difference: $50.00
| Provider / model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cached input / 1M | Monthly example | Verification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3.00 | $15.00 | $0.30 | $75.00Lowest cost | Verified Jun 21, 2026 Anthropic Claude API pricing |
Anthropic Claude Opus 4.8 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $0.50 | $125.00 | Verified Jun 21, 2026 Anthropic Claude API pricing |
When each option may fit
These are decision prompts, not quality rankings. Validate capability, latency, context limits, rate limits, and reliability with your own evaluation set.
When Claude Opus may fit
- Complex tasks justify a higher token rate.
- Better task success may reduce retries or review.
- You have measured cost per successful outcome.
Frequently asked questions
How much more does Claude Opus cost in this example?
The page calculates the current difference directly from versioned catalog rates and the visible standard workload.
Does prompt caching change the result?
It can for eligible repeated input. This standard example uses uncached input so the comparison remains consistent.
Related glossary terms
Input tokens
Input tokens are the tokenized units sent to a model, including instructions, user content, conversation history, retrieved context, and tool definitions.
OpenOutput tokens
Output tokens are the tokenized units generated by a language model, including visible responses and any billable reasoning or thinking tokens defined by the provider.
OpenCost per request
Cost per request is the sum of all billable usage generated by one API call, commonly input token cost plus output token cost for a text model.
Open