List rates · checked November 2, 2026
Opus vs Sonnet Coding Cost
Opus and Sonnet use different public list rates. On a Claude Code day the gap depends on the token mix, especially cache reads and 1-hour cache writes. These figures are estimates. They are not an invoice and not a quality ranking.
Opus vs Sonnet list rates
Amounts are US dollars per million tokens, from the same file as the pricing table. Sonnet 5.5 and Opus 5.5 are the current pair in the calculator. Sonnet 5 and Opus 5 stay on the card with a different cache-read price. Other Opus and Sonnet generations are listed on the pricing page.
| Model | Input | Output | Cache read | 5-minute write | 1-hour write |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2.00 / MTok | $10.00 / MTok | $0.10 / MTok | $2.50 / MTok | $4.00 / MTok |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4.00 / MTok | $20.00 / MTok | $0.20 / MTok | $5.00 / MTok | $8.00 / MTok |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $2.00 / MTok | $10.00 / MTok | $0.20 / MTok | $2.50 / MTok | $4.00 / MTok |
| Claude Opus 5 | $5.00 / MTok | $25.00 / MTok | $0.50 / MTok | $6.25 / MTok | $10.00 / MTok |
- Claude Sonnet 5.5: Cache reads are $0.10 / MTok (0.05× input) on Sonnet 5.5.
- Claude Opus 5.5: Cache reads are $0.20 / MTok (0.05× input).
- Claude Sonnet 5: The $2 / $10 rate is the standard price. Cache reads stay at 0.1× input ($0.20).
Opus vs Sonnet coding cost on one day
This is the heavy Claude Code illustration: 85,000 uncached input, 220,000 output, 18,000,000 cache reads, and 1,200,000 1-hour cache writes. The same counts are priced on each card. It is an example mix, not a quota.
| Model | Input | Cache read | 1-hour write | Output | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $0.17 | $1.80 | $4.80 | $2.20 | $8.97 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $0.34 | $3.60 | $9.60 | $4.40 | $17.94 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $0.17 | $3.60 | $4.80 | $2.20 | $10.77 |
| Claude Opus 5 | $0.425 | $9.00 | $12.00 | $5.50 | $26.93 |
| Claude Opus 5.5, fast | $0.68 | $7.20 | $19.20 | $8.80 | $35.88 |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 on this mix is $8.97. Claude Opus 5.5 is $17.94, which is 2.00× the Sonnet 5.5 total. On the current card, each Opus 5.5 standard rate is 2.00× the matching Sonnet 5.5 rate. That is this pair of cards, not a rule for every Opus and Sonnet generation.
Fast mode on Opus 5.5
Opus 5.5 fast mode is $8 / $40 per million input / output. Cache multipliers apply on top of that input price. With fast mode on, this mix is $35.88 (Fast). Claude Sonnet 5.5 has no published fast price, so fast mode in the calculator keeps the standard total at $8.97.
Choose Opus or Sonnet in the calculator
Open the Claude Code cost calculator and use the Model menu. Token entry follows the model you pick. A JSONL log from ~/.claude/projects/ is priced on the model id in the file when that id is on the card. Leave “Price every call as the selected model” off for that. Turn it on to force the menu choice, which is how you reprice a Sonnet log as Opus, or the other way around.
Paste or upload the log, or enter tokens yourself. The math stays in the browser. For a single-day walkthrough, see Claude Code cost per day. To set that total next to a plan sticker, see Claude Max vs API. Log steps are on how to estimate, and short answers are in the FAQ.