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AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5

Two Anthropic tiers compared on the figures that decide which one a workload actually needs.

Claude Haiku 5.5: profile checked October 25, 2026Claude Opus 5: profile checked October 25, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

Anthropic

Claude Haiku 5.5

Budget

vs

Anthropic

Claude Opus 5

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationClaude Haiku 5.5Claude Opus 5
ProviderAnthropicAnthropic
TierBudgetFrontier
Context window1M1M
Max output128K128K
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.10$5
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $0.50$25
WeightsNot verifiedUnverifiedClosed
ParametersNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Reasoning levelsNot verifiedUnverifiedlow, medium, high, xhigh, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image
API model idclaude-haiku-5-5claude-opus-5
ReleasedOctober 7, 2026July 24, 2026
Humanity's Last Exam · source date Claude Opus 5: 2026-09-01Not verifiedUnverified63.6
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Claude Opus 5: 2026-09-02Not verifiedUnverified89.1

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

Claude Haiku 5.5: Base rates apply to prompts up to 100,000 tokens. Above 100,000 tokens, input is $0.50 and output $2.50 per MTok. Cache reads are $0.01/$0.05; 5-minute writes $0.125/$0.625 and 1-hour writes $0.20/$1 for short/long prompts. Batch input/output receives a 50% discount. Standard output is 128K; 300K Batch output requires the documented beta header. Adaptive thinking defaults to medium effort.

Claude Opus 5: Standard USD/MTok input/output $5/$25 with no long-context surcharge; cache reads $0.50, 5-minute writes $6.25, 1-hour writes $10. Batch $2.50/$12.50. First-party Fast research preview $10/$50, unavailable with Batch; caching and data-residency modifiers stack. US-only inference adds 10% to input/output and cache reads/writes on Anthropic-operated routes where supported; Foundry uses US Data Zone Standard. Bedrock and Google-managed Google Cloud have independent regional prices. Batch 300K output requires output-300k-2026-03-24; standard stays 128K. Knowledge cutoff May 2026; retirement not sooner than July 24, 2027. Server-side tools can add usage fees; tool schemas/results and thinking consume billable tokens.

BudgetRecord checked October 25, 2026

Claude Haiku 5.5

Anthropic positions Haiku 5.5 for high-volume classification, extraction, routing and subagent tasks, with adaptive thinking and a 1M-token context window.

Best for

  • Classification and extraction
  • Routing
  • High-volume subagent tasks

Watch out

Prices increase fivefold above 100K prompt tokens. The newer tokenizer counts approximately 30% more tokens than Haiku 4.5 for the same text. Omit temperature, top_p and top_k. Thinking blocks are reusable only in the producing account or a linked account. Parameter count and weight availability remain unverified; no predecessor benchmark scores are inherited.

FrontierRecord checked October 25, 2026

Claude Opus 5

Claude Opus 5 is Anthropic's July 2026 agentic-coding model, now 'Active (legacy)'. Its successor Opus 5.5 has lower base input/output prices ($4/$20 vs $5/$25 per million tokens); performance depends on the workload and evaluation settings.

Best for

  • Complex agentic coding
  • Enterprise work
  • Long-context analysis

Watch out

Active legacy, superseded by Opus 5.5. On Opus 5, xhigh/max rejects disabled thinking; use a large output budget because thinking shares max_tokens. Test migration: Opus 5.5 makes adaptive thinking always on, rejects forced tool use and the older computer-use tool, and changes thinking-block/progress behavior. Partner cloud lifecycles and prices can differ.

When the cheaper one wins

Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper on output at $0.50 per million tokens against $25 for Claude Opus 5 — about 50×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

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Evidence confidence: Medium

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count, reasoning levels.
  • No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 1 day ago.
  • Source citations incomplete — At least one side lacks the two-source citation set.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Claude Haiku 5.5 · Claude Opus 5

Common questions

Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Claude Haiku 5.5 or Claude Opus 5 cheaper for input?
Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper at $0.10 per million input tokens, against $5 for Claude Opus 5 — roughly 50× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Haiku 5.5: Base rates apply to prompts up to 100,000 tokens. Above 100,000 tokens, input is $0.50 and output $2.50 per MTok. Cache reads are $0.01/$0.05; 5-minute writes $0.125/$0.625 and 1-hour writes $0.20/$1 for short/long prompts. Batch input/output receives a 50% discount. Standard output is 128K; 300K Batch output requires the documented beta header. Adaptive thinking defaults to medium effort. Claude Opus 5: Standard USD/MTok input/output $5/$25 with no long-context surcharge; cache reads $0.50, 5-minute writes $6.25, 1-hour writes $10. Batch $2.50/$12.50. First-party Fast research preview $10/$50, unavailable with Batch; caching and data-residency modifiers stack. US-only inference adds 10% to input/output and cache reads/writes on Anthropic-operated routes where supported; Foundry uses US Data Zone Standard. Bedrock and Google-managed Google Cloud have independent regional prices. Batch 300K output requires output-300k-2026-03-24; standard stays 128K. Knowledge cutoff May 2026; retirement not sooner than July 24, 2027. Server-side tools can add usage fees; tool schemas/results and thinking consume billable tokens.
Is Claude Haiku 5.5 or Claude Opus 5 cheaper for output?
Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper at $0.50 per million output tokens, against $25 for Claude Opus 5 — roughly 50× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Haiku 5.5: Base rates apply to prompts up to 100,000 tokens. Above 100,000 tokens, input is $0.50 and output $2.50 per MTok. Cache reads are $0.01/$0.05; 5-minute writes $0.125/$0.625 and 1-hour writes $0.20/$1 for short/long prompts. Batch input/output receives a 50% discount. Standard output is 128K; 300K Batch output requires the documented beta header. Adaptive thinking defaults to medium effort. Claude Opus 5: Standard USD/MTok input/output $5/$25 with no long-context surcharge; cache reads $0.50, 5-minute writes $6.25, 1-hour writes $10. Batch $2.50/$12.50. First-party Fast research preview $10/$50, unavailable with Batch; caching and data-residency modifiers stack. US-only inference adds 10% to input/output and cache reads/writes on Anthropic-operated routes where supported; Foundry uses US Data Zone Standard. Bedrock and Google-managed Google Cloud have independent regional prices. Batch 300K output requires output-300k-2026-03-24; standard stays 128K. Knowledge cutoff May 2026; retirement not sooner than July 24, 2027. Server-side tools can add usage fees; tool schemas/results and thinking consume billable tokens.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Haiku 5.5 or Claude Opus 5?
Both accept about 1M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Should I use Claude Haiku 5.5 or Claude Opus 5?
We classify Claude Haiku 5.5 in the budget tier and Claude Opus 5 in the frontier tier. Test whether either meets your accuracy, tool-use and latency requirements before choosing on price.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $0.10 per 1M tokens versus $5 for Claude Opus 5 — a 50x difference at the headline tier.
  • Positioning: Claude Haiku 5.5 sits in the budget tier, Claude Opus 5 in the frontier tier. Compare accuracy, reliability, latency, and cost on representative tasks before choosing.
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