Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Document Arenadocument-2026-07-30-011508720696 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,468.90100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-8; 95% CI [1460.58009276, 1477.22476172]; votes 8193; rank 16 | 1,470.22100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1459.84859101, 1480.59820001]; votes 3601; rank 14 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,451.98100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-8; 95% CI [1447.69484580, 1456.25837678]; votes 49123; rank 38 | 1,442.9599% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1438.22001632, 1447.67497803]; votes 31096; rank 56 |
| LMArena Vision Arenavision-2026-08-27-011508720696 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,288.81100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-8; 95% CI [1281.38044914, 1296.24567110]; votes 13980; rank 23 | 1,277.9499% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1269.73992861, 1286.14906472]; votes 8522; rank 29 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above · 2 ties | 1 benchmark winOverall lead | 0 benchmark wins |
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 Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Family | Claude 4 8 | Claude 5 |
| Model | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Version | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-05-28 | 2026-06-30 |
| 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 Sonnet 5 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Mythos 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | 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 5Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 FAQs
Is Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 5 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5?+
Claude Opus 4.8 is $5.00 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper on this metric. Claude Opus 4.8 is $25.00 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 5?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. Claude Opus 4.8 is 1,000,000 and Claude Sonnet 5 is 1,000,000.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 5?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: An overall winner requires at least two decisive benchmarks from at least two original publishers.
Can Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 5 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Opus 4.8 is not marked open weight; Claude Sonnet 5 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 understand images?+
Claude Opus 4.8 is documented with image input; Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Opus 4.8 is 128,000 and Claude Sonnet 5 is 128,000.
Do Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Opus 4.8: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5?+
Claude Opus 4.8 has 2 sourced provider routes; Claude Sonnet 5 has 3, so Claude Sonnet 5 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Sonnet 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.