Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 compared
This section compares the price, speed and strengths of the three models.
20 itemsClaude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 compared
This section compares the price, speed and strengths of the three models.
20 itemsThis section compares the price, speed and strengths of the three models.
| Item | Opus 5.5 (launched September 22) | Sonnet 5.5 (launched September 28) | Haiku 5.5 (launched October 7) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (input · output, per 1 million tokens) | $4 · $20 | $2 · $10 | $0.10 · $0.50 ($0.50 · $2.50 for prompts over 100,000 tokens) | Pricing docs |
| Cache read (per 1 million tokens) | $0.20 | $0.10 | $0.01 ($0.05 for prompts over 100,000 tokens) | Pricing docs |
| Context size · maximum output | 1 million tokens · 128,000 tokens | 1 million tokens · 128,000 tokens | 1 million tokens · 128,000 tokens | Developer docs |
| Response speed (official relative comparison) | Moderate | Fast | Fastest | Developer docs |
| Default reasoning effort | medium | high | medium | Developer docs |
| Thinking | The model sets the amount itself, always on | The model sets the amount itself, can be turned off | The model sets the amount itself, can be turned off | Developer docs |
| Best at | Complex, open-ended work that needs long judgment | Everyday tasks with a clear scope, bug fixes, writing documents, slides and spreadsheets | High-volume repeated work such as summaries, classification and database queries, and a sub-agent that helps Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 in coding | Each model announcement |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (terminal tasks) | 66.4% | 70.6% | 39.2% | Each model announcement |
| GDPval-AA (knowledge work) | 1,846 points | 1,844 points | Each model announcement | |
| Model ID | claude-opus-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | claude-haiku-5-5 | Developer docs |
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Launch date | 2026-09-22. The first model in the Claude 5.5 family | Anthropic announcement |
| One-line summary | Matches Fable 5.1 on most tasks, and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5 | Anthropic announcement |
| Price | Per 1 million tokens (the unit in which AI reads and writes text): $4 input, $20 output. Opus 5 costs $5 and $25 | Anthropic announcement |
| Cache read | $0.20 per 1 million tokens. 60% lower than Opus 5 ($0.50) | Anthropic announcement |
| Speed | Output generation is more than 30% faster than Opus 5 | Anthropic announcement |
| Default setting | The default reasoning effort (how much the model thinks before it answers, low to max) changes to medium (Opus 5 uses high). Thinking is always on | Developer docs |
| Other changes | The 5-hour usage limit rises for Pro, Max and Team, and each user gets one usage-limit reset to use when they choose | @claudeai |
| Claude Code | The default Opus model changes to Opus 5.5 (CHANGELOG 2.1.280) | anthropics/claude-code |
| Reaction to the official announcement | The announcement post on X has 12.91 million views and 76,000 likes. The announcement post on Reddit r/ClaudeAI has 1,750 points | Original post on X |
| Competition the same day | OpenAI also launched GPT-6 Sol and Luna the same day | 9to5Google |
Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 for input and $10 for output per 1 million tokens. This is less than Opus 5.5 ($4 input, $20 output), and Sonnet 5.5 responds faster. Anthropic says Opus 5.5 does better on complex work that needs long judgment. Sonnet 5.5 does better on everyday tasks with a clear scope and on writing documents.
Opus 5.5 launched on September 22, 2026, and Sonnet 5.5 launched on September 28. Both models read up to 1 million tokens at one time.
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