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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5.5

Claude Opus 5.5 comes out ahead, 70 to 63 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 4.8

    Released May 28, 2026

    63/100
    • ECI158.3
    • Price$5.00 / $25.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Opus 4.8
  2. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Opus 5.5

    Released Sep 22, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI167.4
    • Price$4.00 / $20.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Opus 5.5

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Claude Opus 5.5 is our pick

Claude Opus 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Claude Opus 4.8 (63). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Opus 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5.5 167.4 · Claude Opus 4.8 158.3
  • Lowest priceClaude Opus 5.5Claude Opus 5.5 $8.00 · Claude Opus 4.8 $10.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameClaude Opus 4.8 1,000,000 · Claude Opus 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsClaude Opus 4.8: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Opus 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Opus 4.8Claude Opus 5.5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%89100
Price25%27
Inputs & features15%8080
Context window10%6060
Overall100%63/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Opus 4.8AnthropicClaude Opus 5.5Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)158.3167.4 (best)
ECI rank#12 of 148#1 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions91.0% (best)90.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics80.0%91.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics98.3%100% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions53.0%72.2% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$5.00$4.00 (best)
Output$25.00$20.00 (best)
Cached input$0.50$0.20 (best)
Blended (3:1)$10.00$8.00 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-opus-4-8claude-opus-5-5
API providers45 (best)28
ReleasedMay 28, 2026Sep 22, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJan 2026Jun 2026
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Claude Opus 4.8$100.00
  • Claude Opus 5.5$80.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5.5?

Claude Opus 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Claude Opus 4.8 (63). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5.5?

Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper at $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $8.00 per million tokens for Claude Opus 5.5 versus $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.8 (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Opus 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5.5 167.4 (#1 of 148) and Claude Opus 4.8 158.3 (#12 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (164.0–172.0 vs 156.1–160.7), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Opus 4.8 91.0%, Claude Opus 5.5 90.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Opus 5.5 91.2%, Claude Opus 4.8 80.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 5.5 100%, Claude Opus 4.8 98.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Opus 5.5 72.2%, Claude Opus 4.8 53.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 5.5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5.5 share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 4.8 up to 128,000, Claude Opus 5.5 up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Opus 4.8 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Opus 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Claude Opus 5.5 is the newest, released Sep 22, 2026. Claude Opus 4.8 came out May 28, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 4.8 Jan 2026, Claude Opus 5.5 Jun 2026.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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