Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Opus 5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,451.9896% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-8; 95% CI [1447.69484580, 1456.25837678]; votes 49123; rank 38 | 1,504.96100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-5-max; 95% CI [1499.16488972, 1510.76500615]; votes 16839; rank 1 |
| LiveBench2026-06-25 · overall · leader | 81.1897% of row best · percent · claude-opus-4-8-max-effort · 24,171 output tokens / case | 83.44100% of row best · percent · claude-opus-5-max-effort · 14,826 output tokens / case |
| ToneBench2026-08-14-10-task · overall_score · leader | 88.0997% of row best · points · Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) · 13,476 output tokens / case | 90.37100% of row best · points · Claude Opus 5 (max effort) · 2,832 output tokens / case |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 0 benchmark wins | 3 benchmark winsOverall lead |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Opus 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Family | Claude 4 8 | Claude 5 |
| Model | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Opus 5 |
| Version | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Opus 5 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-05-28 | 2026-07-24 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2026-01-01 | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Total parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | Unknown | Unknown |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Provider access | Anthropic (Standard), Deepinfra (Standard) | Anthropic (Standard), Deepinfra (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
14 comparable fields · 5 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Claude Opus 4.8 Capabilities
Claude Opus 5 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
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|---|---|---|---|
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Claude Mythos 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Fable 5Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Mythos 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 5Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | vs |  GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5 FAQs
Is Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?+
Claude Opus 4.8 is $5.00 and Claude Opus 5 is $5.00 per million tokens, so they are tied on this metric. Claude Opus 4.8 is $25.00 and Claude Opus 5 is $25.00 per million tokens, so they are tied on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. Claude Opus 4.8 is 1,000,000 and Claude Opus 5 is 1,000,000.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?+
Claude Opus 5 leads the current overall benchmark count. The result uses 3 protocol-matched benchmarks from 3 publishers; it is not a universal quality score.
Can Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Opus 4.8 is not marked open weight; Claude Opus 5 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5 understand images?+
Claude Opus 4.8 is documented with image input; Claude Opus 5 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Opus 4.8 is 128,000 and Claude Opus 5 is 128,000.
Do Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Opus 4.8: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Claude Opus 5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?+
Claude Opus 4.8 has 2 sourced provider routes; Claude Opus 5 has 3, so Claude Opus 5 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.