@rohanpaul_ai: Claude Sonnet 5 is more expensive (around +15%) per task than Opus 4.8 and much more expensive (2X) than Sonnet 4.6, ev…
Summary
Claude Sonnet 5 costs more per task than previous models due to higher token usage despite lower per-token price, with discounted pricing until August 2026.
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Cached at: 07/01/26, 12:06 PM
Claude Sonnet 5 is more expensive (around +15%) per task than Opus 4.8 and much more expensive (2X) than Sonnet 4.6, even though its per-token price is lower than Opus.
Because it uses more tokens to complete the same kind of benchmark task. i.e. Sonnet 5 works harder and talks/thinks more, so the final bill becomes bigger even though each token is cheaper.
The promo pricing changes the story for now. Until August 31, 2026, Sonnet 5 is discounted to $2 per 1M input tokens and $10 per 1M output tokens, then it moves back to 3/15 from September 1, 2026.
Artificial Analysis (@ArtificialAnlys): Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.29 per task on the Intelligence Index, a ~2x increase compared to Sonnet 4.6 and ~15% more than Claude Opus 4.8. This is driven entirely by increased token usage, making Claude Sonnet 5 one of the most costly models to run, behind only Claude Fable 5. Our
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