API cost decision in 10 seconds

Claude Opus Latest vs Claude Opus 4.5

The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-26T11:08:00Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.

Both models are estimated at $17.5 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Cost-first pickTie

Context-first pickClaude Opus Latest

Sample savings$00%

10x traffic gap$0

Context-window winner: Claude Opus Latest. Cost does not separate this pair on the standard workload, so the next decision point is context window and model behavior.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

The two models stay tied across the input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Claude Opus Latest	Claude Opus 4.5
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Tie	$37.5	$37.5
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Tie	$30	$30
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Tie	$130	$130

Cheaper input Tie $5 vs $5 / 1M

Both models report the same input price at $5 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Tie $25 vs $25 / 1M

Both models report the same output price at $25 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Claude Opus Latest 1M vs 200K

Claude Opus Latest has 800K more context (5x larger).

Sample workload Tie $17.5 vs $17.5

Both models have the same estimated cost for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload: $17.5.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Claude Opus Latest Calculating… Estimated API cost

Claude Opus 4.5 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

both models tie on input price; both models tie on output price; Claude Opus Latest offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, the standard workload cost is tied.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $17.5 for Claude Opus Latest and $17.5 for Claude Opus 4.5.

Best Fit

Choose Claude Opus Latest when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Claude Opus 4.5 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

Both models are estimated at $17.5 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Both models have the same estimated cost for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload: $17.5.
Both models report the same input price at $5 per 1M tokens.
Both models report the same output price at $25 per 1M tokens.
Claude Opus Latest has 800K more context (5x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Claude Opus Latest (Anthropic)	Claude Opus 4.5 (Anthropic)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$5	$5
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$25	$25
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$17.5	$17.5
Context Window	1M	200K
Release Date	2026-04-21	2025-11-24

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Tie	Both models are estimated at $17.5 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
High-volume input processing	Tie	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Tie	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Claude Opus Latest	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Claude 3 Haiku can replace Claude Opus Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.88.
Claude 3.5 Haiku can replace Claude Opus Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $2.8.
Anthropic Claude Haiku Latest can replace Claude Opus Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $3.5.
Claude Haiku 4.5 can replace Claude Opus Latest when lower sample workload cost matters most: $3.5.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
OpenAI GPT Latest offers 1.05M context with $20 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

No popular competitor is currently available.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

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Anthropic catalog

Review all tracked Anthropic models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

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Claude Opus Latest

This model always redirects to the latest model in the Claude Opus family.

Claude Opus 4.5

Claude Opus 4.5 is Anthropic’s frontier reasoning model optimized for complex software engineering, agentic workflows, and long-horizon computer use. It offers strong multimodal capabilities, competitive performance across real-world coding and...