Claude Opus 5 benchmarks, pricing and specs
Claude Opus 5 is an Anthropic model released on July 24, 2026 that takes text and image input and produces text. It costs $5 per 1M input tokens and $25 per 1M output tokens and accepts up to 1,000,000 tokens of context. It scores 1490 Elo on Arena Text, #6 of 39 current models (Arena, measured October 8, 2026).
- Per 1M input tokens
- $5
- Per 1M output tokens
- $25
- Context window
- 1M
- Arena Text
- 1490 Elo · #6/39
Data verified October 12, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-12
Key facts
- Provider
- Anthropic
- Model family
- Claude Opus
- Release date
- July 24, 2026
- Status
- Current
- Access
- API only
- API model id
- Not reported
- Context window
- 1,000,000 tokens
- Max output
- 128,000 tokens
- Input
- text, image
- Output
- text
- Task families
- text, multimodal
- Declared capabilities
- reasoning
Claude Opus 5 pricing
It is the #5 most expensive of 37 current text models priced per 1M input tokens.
Independent benchmark results
Scores come from independent evaluators that ran the model themselves, pinned to a dated snapshot. Rank is among current models in the same snapshot. Anthropic's own launch figures are listed under strengths with the publisher named, because they are not measured the same way.
| Benchmark | Score | Rank | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arena Text | 1490 Elo | #6 of 39 | October 8, 2026 | Arena · 2026-10-12 |
| GPQA Diamond | 93.9% | #10 of 37 | October 12, 2026 | Epoch AI · 2026-10-12 |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 85.6% | #10 of 37 | October 12, 2026 | Epoch AI · 2026-10-12 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 59.9% | #15 of 34 | October 12, 2026 | Epoch AI · 2026-10-12 |
Strengths, cautions and best uses
Strengths
- Anthropic’s recommended default for most workloads, at half Fable 5.1’s token price ($5 / $25) with the same 1M-token context window and 128,000-token maximum output
- Exposes five effort settings (low, medium, high, xhigh, max), which trade capability against token consumption without changing model
- One of only two models with a Fast mode research preview, billed at $10 / $50 across the full context window
Cautions
- Fast mode pricing applies to the whole request, including above 200K input tokens, so it doubles the effective rate rather than adding a surcharge
- Cache reads are $0.50 per million (the standard 0.1x), five times Fable 5.1’s $0.25, even though Opus 5 is the cheaper model on base tokens. A cache-heavy agent loop can invert the expected cost ordering between the two.
Best for
- Complex agentic coding and enterprise work as the general-purpose default before reaching for Fable 5.1
- Latency-sensitive work that can justify Fast mode pricing
Alternatives to Claude Opus 5
The closest current textmodels by price. The cheapest model that scores as well or better is listed first; failing that, the cheapest one within 3% of the benchmark's scale.
Cheaper, same or higher score
Gemini 3.8 Flash
- 85% cheaper per 1M input tokens, $0.75 vs $5
- 7 points higher on Arena Text, 1497 vs 1490
- From Google
GPT-5.5
- Same price per 1M input tokens, $5
- 8 points lower on Arena Text, 1482 vs 1490
- From OpenAI
GPT-5.6 Sol
- 20% cheaper per 1M input tokens, $4 vs $5
- 5 points lower on Arena Text, 1485 vs 1490
- From OpenAI
Kimi K3
- 40% cheaper per 1M input tokens, $3 vs $5
- 2 points lower on Arena Text, 1488 vs 1490
- From Moonshot Kimi
Compare Claude Opus 5 with
Articles about Claude Opus 5
Other Claude Opus models
Claude Opus 5 FAQ
How much does Claude Opus 5 cost?
Claude Opus 5 costs $5 per 1M input tokens and $25 per 1M output tokens at the standard tier. It is the #5 most expensive of 37 current text models priced per 1M input tokens. Source: Anthropic, verified October 11, 2026.
What is the context window of Claude Opus 5?
Claude Opus 5 accepts up to 1,000,000 tokens of context. It can return up to 128,000 tokens in one response. That ranks #24 of 44 current text models by context length.
How does Claude Opus 5 score on independent benchmarks?
Claude Opus 5 scores 1490 Elo on Arena Text, #6 of 39 current models (Arena, measured October 8, 2026), 93.9% on GPQA Diamond, #10 of 37 current models (Epoch AI, measured October 12, 2026) and 85.6% on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), #10 of 37 current models (Epoch AI, measured October 12, 2026). These are independent evaluations, not Anthropic's own launch figures.
Is Claude Opus 5 open source or API only?
Claude Opus 5 is available through Anthropic's API only; its weights are not published.
What are the best alternatives to Claude Opus 5?
The closest current alternatives by price and measured performance are Gemini 3.8 Flash (85% cheaper per 1M input tokens, $0.75 vs $5), GPT-5.5 (same price per 1M input tokens, $5), GPT-5.6 Sol (20% cheaper per 1M input tokens, $4 vs $5) and Kimi K3 (40% cheaper per 1M input tokens, $3 vs $5).
Sources
- Claude models overview · Anthropic · official · verified October 11, 2026
- Claude API pricing · Anthropic · official · verified October 11, 2026
- Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub data (benchmark_data.zip) · Epoch AI · independent · verified October 12, 2026 · CC-BY-4.0
- Arena leaderboard dataset (lmarena-ai/leaderboard-dataset) · Arena · independent · verified October 12, 2026 · CC-BY-4.0
Cite this page
Van Data Team. "Claude Opus 5 Benchmarks, Pricing and Specs." AI Model Benchmark Dataset 2026-10-12. https://vandatateam.com/ai-model-benchmarks/claude-opus-5
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Production evaluation
Deciding whether Claude Opus 5 fits your workload?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We test the finalists on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
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