# Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Opus 5.5

Claude Opus 5.5 is one of Anthropic's newest models and Claude Opus 5 an earlier one, so this is also what moving up costs or saves. Claude Opus 5.5 is the cheaper of the 2: for the same tokens, 3 read for each 1 written, Claude Opus 5 costs 1.3 times as much. Below are both price lists, what 8 everyday jobs cost a month on each, and how many tokens the same text takes on each, which can change the answer.

- Page, with a calculator for your own job: https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-opus-5-vs-claude-opus-5-5
- Makers: Claude Opus 5 from Anthropic, Claude Opus 5.5 from Anthropic

## Price per million tokens, in US dollars

| | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 5.5 |
| --- | --: | --: |
| Input | $5 | $4 |
| Cached input | $0.50 | $0.20 |
| Cache write | $6.25 | $5 |
| Output | $25 | $20 |
| Blend, 3 read for each 1 written | $10 | $8 |
| Batch input | $2.50 | $2 |
| Batch output | $12.50 | $10 |
| Context window, tokens | 1M | 1M |
| Capability score (Epoch Capabilities Index; GPT-5 is 150) | 163 | 167 |
| Longest answer, tokens | 128K | 128K |

## What 8 everyday jobs cost a month on each

Each job at its usual runs a day, for 30 days, at the standard price.

| Job | Tokens in, out, runs a day | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 5.5 |
| --- | --- | --: | --: |
| A chat question | 300, 500, 100 | $42.00 | $33.60 |
| A hard question, with thinking | 300, 1,400, 100 | $110 | $87.60 |
| A long report, summarised | 60,000, 2,000, 20 | $210 | $168 |
| A 40-turn agent task | 2,800,000, 40,000, 10 | $1,098 | $727 |
| A support bot's reply | 4,000, 300, 2,000 | $1,110 | $864 |
| Sort a message into a category | 250, 5, 50,000 | $2,063 | $1,650 |
| Read an invoice into fields | 1,500, 250, 1,000 | $413 | $330 |
| Review a pull request | 25,000, 4,500, 50 | $356 | $285 |

## Questions

### Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 or Claude Opus 5.5?

Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper: $4 per million tokens read and $20 per million written, against $5 and $25 on Claude Opus 5. On a mix of 3 tokens read for each 1 written, Claude Opus 5 costs 1.3 times as much.

### Which is better, Claude Opus 5 or Claude Opus 5.5?

On the Epoch Capabilities Index, an independent score from Epoch AI that combines over 50 benchmarks, Claude Opus 5.5 scores 167 and Claude Opus 5 163, above the top of the range of doubt around Claude Opus 5's score (GPT-5 is 150). One score is an average; test both on your own work before you switch.

### What does a support bot cost a month on Claude Opus 5 and Claude Opus 5.5?

At 2,000 replies a day, each reading 4,000 tokens (50 percent of them from cache) and writing 300, it costs $1,110 a month on Claude Opus 5 and $864 on Claude Opus 5.5: Claude Opus 5 costs 1.3 times as much for this job.

### What does an AI agent task cost on Claude Opus 5 and Claude Opus 5.5?

One 40-turn task that reads 2,800,000 tokens in all, 90 percent of them from cache, and writes 40,000, costs $3.66 on Claude Opus 5 and $2.42 on Claude Opus 5.5. At 10 tasks a day that is $1,098 and $727 a month.

### Which has the larger context window, Claude Opus 5 or Claude Opus 5.5?

Neither: both hold 1M tokens at once, about 1,500 pages of English text.

### Does the same text take the same number of tokens on Claude Opus 5 and Claude Opus 5.5?

Yes, both are counted the same way: our lesson "How AI writes", 1,700 words long, is about 2,100 to 3,600 tokens on each.

### Is it cheaper to move from Claude Opus 5 to Claude Opus 5.5?

Yes, per token: Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 per million tokens read and $20 written, against $5 and $25 on Claude Opus 5, which costs 1.3 times as much for the same tokens. Run your own tasks on it before you switch, since answers, length and thinking can differ.

### Can I pay less on Claude Opus 5 and Claude Opus 5.5 for work that can wait?

Yes, on both. With a batch, where you collect the answers later instead of at once, Claude Opus 5 costs $2.50 per million tokens read and $12.50 written, and Claude Opus 5.5 $2 and $10.

## Sources

- [Anthropic: API prices](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing)
- [Epoch Capabilities Index, by Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0)](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks/eci)

## Other comparisons

- [Claude Mythos 5.1 vs Claude Opus 5.5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-mythos-5-1-vs-claude-opus-5-5.md)
- [Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 5.5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-fable-5-vs-claude-opus-5-5.md)
- [Claude Mythos 5 vs Claude Opus 5.5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-mythos-5-vs-claude-opus-5-5.md)
- [Claude Fable 5.1 vs Claude Opus 5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-claude-opus-5.md)
- [Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-opus-5-vs-claude-sonnet-5-5.md)
- [Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-haiku-5-5-vs-claude-opus-5.md)