# Claude Sonnet 5: Benchmarks and Pricing vs Opus 4.8

> Claude Sonnet 5 beats Opus 4.8 on knowledge work but trails on coding. A cheaper workhorse for simpler tasks, not a full Opus replacement.

Published: 2026-07-02
URL: https://daniliants.com/insights/claude-sonnet-5-benchmarks-and-pricing-vs-opus-4-8/
Tags: claude, anthropic, model-release, opus

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## Summary

Quick benchmark-and-pricing rundown of Claude Sonnet 5, the first Sonnet upgrade since 4.6. It beats Opus 4.8 on knowledge work but trails on coding, positioned as a cheaper workhorse for simpler tasks rather than a full Opus replacement.

## Key Insight

- **Pricing:** $2 / M input tokens, $10 / M output tokens, roughly 60% cheaper than Opus.
- **Where it wins:** knowledge work, where Sonnet 5 actually beats Opus 4.8.
- **Where it loses:** coding, around 2% behind on Terminal Bench 2.1 and around 6% behind on agentic coding versus Opus 4.8.
- **Counterintuitive cost point:** on complex tasks Opus can be *cheaper* despite the higher per-token price, because it is more token-efficient (fewer tokens to reach the answer). Sticker price per token is not the real cost.
- Framed as a "great workhorse," reserving Opus (or Fable) for the tasks that genuinely need it.