Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Agent Arenaagent-2026-08-31-011508720696 · outcome_score · statistical tie | 11.61100% of row best · score · Claude Opus 5 (Max); 95% CI [9.58391463, 13.64552719]; sessions 17073; observations 2093237; rank 2 | 7.4896% of row best · score · Claude Sonnet 5 (High); 95% CI [5.31247081, 9.65098366]; sessions 27467; observations 2696236; rank 8 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,504.96100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-5-max; 95% CI [1499.16488972, 1510.76500615]; votes 16839; rank 1 | 1,442.9596% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1438.22001632, 1447.67497803]; votes 31096; rank 56 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above · 1 tie | 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 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Family | Claude 5 | Claude 5 |
| Model | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Version | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-07-24 | 2026-06-30 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | 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), Openrouter (Standard) | Anthropic (Standard), Deepinfra (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
14 comparable fields · 3 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Claude Opus 5 Capabilities
Claude Sonnet 5 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Mythos 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
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 Opus 4.8Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | 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 |
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 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 FAQs
Is Claude Opus 5 or Claude Sonnet 5 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 5 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 5 or Claude Sonnet 5?+
Claude Opus 5 is $5.00 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.00 per million tokens, so Claude Sonnet 5 is cheaper on this metric. Claude Opus 5 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 5 or Claude Sonnet 5?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. Claude Opus 5 is 1,000,000 and Claude Sonnet 5 is 1,000,000.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 5 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 5 or Claude Sonnet 5 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Opus 5 is not marked open weight; Claude Sonnet 5 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 understand images?+
Claude Opus 5 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 5 or Claude Sonnet 5?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Opus 5 is 128,000 and Claude Sonnet 5 is 128,000.
Do Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Opus 5: 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 5 or Claude Sonnet 5?+
Claude Opus 5 has 3 sourced provider routes; Claude Sonnet 5 has 3, a tie.
Which offers better value, Claude Opus 5 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.