Model comparison
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
Compare Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 API pricing: input/output token costs, cache pricing, context windows, workload estimates, and routing fit.
Claude Opus 4.8
anthropic · claude-opus-4-8
- Input
- $5
- Output
- $25
- Context
- 1M
Claude Sonnet 4.6
anthropic · claude-sonnet-4-6
- Input
- $3
- Output
- $15
- Context
- 1M
Quick take
Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the lower input price at $3 per 1M input tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is cheaper for the example blended workload below. Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window at 1M tokens.
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if...
- Claude Opus 4.8 gives more room for long generated answers, reports, or code output.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 if...
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the better default for cost-sensitive traffic and repeated high-volume calls.
Example workload cost
Estimates use input tokens plus 20% output tokens. They exclude provider discounts, cache hits, and tool/search surcharges.
| Workload | Claude Opus 4.8 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M input + 200K output | $10.00 | $6.00 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| 10M input + 2M output | $100.00 | $60.00 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
| 100M input + 20M output | $1,000.00 | $600.00 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 |
Context, output, and capability fit
Claude Opus 4.8 provides the larger context window. Check max output separately when the task needs long reports, code generation, or full-document rewrites.
- Claude Opus 4.8 max output
- 128K
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 max output
- 64K
- Claude Opus 4.8 features
- prompt caching, function calling, vision
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 features
- prompt caching, function calling, vision
Risk notes for Claude Opus 4.8
- High output price: cap max tokens for verbose generation workloads.
Risk notes for Claude Sonnet 4.6
- No major capability risk is flagged in this snapshot, but provider pages should still be verified before production routing.
Routing tags
frontierpremiumreasoningcodingagentslong-contextmultimodalcache-friendlyragenterprise-rag