Last refreshed: October 8, 2026
Claude wins on coding quality and long-context reliability. GPT-5 wins on raw speed at the prior mid-tier list. Pick the SKU, not the family name.
Claude figures checked October 8, 2026 against platform.claude.com pricing and Haiku 5.5. OpenAI rows below are the October 1 figures on this page; they were not re-verified on this pass.
The Models Being Compared
Compare Claude Haiku 5.5 / Sonnet 5.5 / Opus 5.5 against GPT-5 / gpt-6.1-sol. Fable 5.1 sits above Opus on Anthropic’s list price.
| Model | Provider | Input (per 1M tokens) | Output (per 1M tokens) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5 (≤100k / >100k) | Anthropic | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.50 / $2.50 | priced by prompt length |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | $1 | $5 | still listed |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $2 | $10 | 1M tokens; cache read $0.10 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Anthropic | $2 | $10 | 1M tokens; cache read $0.20 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | $3 | $15 | 1M tokens |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 | $20 | 1M tokens |
| Claude Opus 5 / 4.8 | Anthropic | $5 | $25 | 1M tokens |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Anthropic | $10 | $50 | 1M tokens |
| GPT-5 | OpenAI | $1.25 | $10 | 400K tokens (Oct 1 figure) |
| gpt-6.1-sol (short-context standard) | OpenAI | $2 | $10 | long-context row was $4 / $15 (Oct 1 figure) |
Sonnet 5.5 remains $2 / $10. Its cache read moved from $0.20 to $0.10 on October 7. Opus 5.5 remains $4 / $20 with cache reads at $0.20. Haiku 5.5 is the new cheap band: $0.10 / $0.50 under 100,000 prompt tokens, $0.50 / $2.50 over. Haiku 4.5 stays $1 / $5. GPT-5 standard list on the prior check ($1.25 / $10) was cheaper per input token than Sonnet 5.5. Do not average Haiku 5.5’s two bands, and do not treat the OpenAI rows as re-checked today.
Coding Performance
Use Claude Opus 5.5 or Sonnet 5.5 for interactive coding and agentic runs. Use Haiku 5.5 when the task is a subagent, summary, or classification and the prompt stays under 100k tokens.
Latency and Context
Claude Sonnet and Opus SKUs publish a 1M token context window at one rate. Haiku 5.5 raises the rate above 100,000 prompt tokens. Opus 5.5 fast mode is $8 / $40 on the Claude API only.
Cost Comparison for Real Workloads
On Claude, cache reads are now 5% of input on Sonnet 5.5 ($0.10) and Opus 5.5 ($0.20), and 2.5% on Fable 5.1 ($0.25). Haiku 5.5 cache reads are $0.01 under 100k. The 50% batch API still applies. For stateless high-frequency calls, Haiku 5.5 under 100k is the Claude list to beat. gpt-6.1-sol short-context matched Sonnet 5.5 at $2 / $10 on the October 1 check; that OpenAI pair was not re-read today.
Which API to Choose
Use Claude for coding, long-context document work, and agentic workflows. Use Haiku 5.5 for the cheap loop. Running both vendors is normal.
Related: Claude API token rates.