Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5: API cost comparison

For a typical chatbot (1,500 input + 400 output tokens, 100,000 requests a month), Claude Opus 5.5 is 20% cheaper: $1,658 vs $2,073 for Claude Opus 5. Paste your own prompt below to compare the exact cost of your workload.

0 characters0 words0 tokens (GPT o200k)

ModelInput tokensPrice / 1M (in → out)Per requestPer month
Claude Opus 5.5$4 → $20
Claude Opus 5$5 → $25

≈ = estimated token count: only OpenAI publishes its tokenizer. Claude counts use Anthropic’s published ratios; use the count_tokens API for an exact number.

Price per million tokens

USD, standard tier. Prices checked on October 28, 2026.

Claude Opus 5.5Claude Opus 5
Input$4$5
Output$20$25
Cached input$0.2$0.5
Cache write (5 min)$5$6.25
Long promptsSame price at any lengthSame price at any length
Batch API50% off50% off
ProviderAnthropic (Claude)Anthropic (Claude)

Monthly cost for common workloads

WorkloadClaude Opus 5.5Claude Opus 5
Chatbot
1,500 input + 400 output tokens, 100,000 requests a month
$1,658$2,073
Document Q&A (RAG)
8,000 input + 500 output tokens, half the input cached, 20,000 requests a month
$680$879
Long-document summary
150,000 input + 2,000 output tokens, 1,000 requests a month
$898$1,123
Bulk classification (Batch API)
500 input + 20 output tokens, 1 million requests a month, Batch API where available
$1,630$2,037

Token counts are converted per model: the same text becomes a different number of tokens on each provider (see below). The cheaper option in each row is highlighted.

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Opus 5.5 cheaper than Claude Opus 5?

Per million tokens, Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 / $20 (input / output) and Claude Opus 5 costs $5 / $25. For a typical chatbot workload (1,500 input + 400 output tokens, 100,000 requests a month), Claude Opus 5.5 is 20% cheaper: $1,658 vs $2,073 for Claude Opus 5. Token counts differ between providers, so compare the cost of the same prompt rather than the price per token.

How much do Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Opus 5 cost per million tokens?

Claude Opus 5.5: $4 / $20 for input / output, $0.2 for cached input. Claude Opus 5: $5 / $25, $0.5 for cached input. Prices in US dollars, standard tier, checked on October 28, 2026.

Do Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Opus 5 count tokens the same way?

Claude Opus 5.5 uses Anthropic's newer tokenizer, which produces about 30% more tokens than earlier Claude models. We estimate about 1.43× the GPT o200k count for the same text. Claude Opus 5 uses Anthropic's newer tokenizer, which produces about 30% more tokens than earlier Claude models. We estimate about 1.43× the GPT o200k count for the same text.

Do Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Opus 5 have a Batch API discount?

Both do: Claude Opus 5.5 gets 50% off and Claude Opus 5 50% off for requests sent through the Batch API, which may take up to 24 hours.

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