Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5 benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic) and Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 5 is ahead by 26 points (1,624 vs 1,598; seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 5 resolves 79.2% versus 78.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). Claude Opus 5 streams faster (72 tok/s) while Claude Opus 4.8 is the cheaper output token ($25/1M). Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

Share Analysis:

WhatsApp Telegram X / Post LinkedIn Reddit

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.8

Prior Opus generation still billed at $5/$25. Kept as a compare baseline against Opus 5.

Elo 1,598$25/1M out

Anthropic

Claude Opus 5

Anthropic current default flagship. Official API $5/$25 per 1M tokens and a 1M context window (Anthropic, Jul 24 2026).

Elo 1,624$50/1M out

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.8 (2)vsClaude Opus 5 (7)

Claude Opus 4.8: 2W (22%)Overall: Claude Opus 5Claude Opus 5: 7W (78%)

← Claude Opus 4.81 tiesClaude Opus 5 →

Claude Opus 5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,598vs1,624

Coding Elo

1,604vs1,618

SWE-bench

78.4%vs79.2%

LiveBench

73.6%vs74.8%

GPQA Diamond

86.2%vs87.1%

Claude Opus 4.8: 0WClaude Opus 5: 5W

Claude Opus 5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

66 tok/svs72 tok/s

Time to first token

330 msvs310 ms

Claude Opus 4.8: 0WClaude Opus 5: 2W

Claude Opus 4.8 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$50/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$10/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Opus 4.8: 2WClaude Opus 5: 0W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Opus 5 4/6

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 5

26 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Opus 5

6 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Claude Opus 4.8

$25.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,598

EloHigh is better

1,624+2%

Code Elo

High is better

1,604

Code EloHigh is better

1,618+1%

LiveBench

High is better

73.6%

LiveBenchHigh is better

74.8%+2%

SWE-bench

High is better

78.4%

SWE-benchHigh is better

79.2%+1%

GPQA

High is better

86.2%

GPQAHigh is better

87.1%+1%

TTFT

Low is better

330 ms

TTFTLow is better

310 ms+6%

Speed

High is better

66 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

72 tok/s+9%

In $

Low is better

+100%$5/1M

In $Low is better

$10/1M

Out $

Low is better

+100%$25/1M

Out $Low is better

$50/1M

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 50% with Claude Opus 4.8

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Opus 4.8$550.00 / mo

In: $175.00Out: $375.00

Claude Opus 5$1,100.00 / mo

In: $350.00Out: $750.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Claude Opus 4.8 is estimated to save $550.00/month ($6,600/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 5:Pick Claude Opus 5 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Opus 4.8:Pick Claude Opus 4.8 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Claude Opus 5:Pick Claude Opus 5 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 5

Higher SWE-bench (79.2%).

High-volume chatClaude Opus 4.8

Lower output list price ($25/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Opus 5

Lower TTFT (310 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.8

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 5

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 5).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 5	Higher SWE-bench (79.2%).
High-volume chat	Claude Opus 4.8	Lower output list price ($25/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Opus 5	Lower TTFT (310 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.8	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 5	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 5).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

compareAug 10, 2026

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Usually Sonnet 5 vs Opus 5. Coding delta versus output $/1M. The workhorse question.

compareJul 24, 2026

Claude vs Gemini: coding, Elo, and output price — not a brand mashup

Top Anthropic vs top Google. Usually Opus 5 vs 3.6 Pro. Two different invoices.

compareJul 24, 2026

Claude vs GPT benchmark: this hub always remaps to the current Elo leaders

Not a frozen 2025 article. Today that is usually Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol. Dated cells, not a brand fight.

launchJul 24, 2026

Claude Opus 5 is Anthropic’s default flagship — how to read it on CompareLLM

Jul 24 2026 official API at $5/$25 and a 1M window. Preference Elo is taste, not a coding exam.

Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

0 total votes

Community Discussions (0)

No comments posted on this matchup yet. Be the first to share an evaluation note!

Share card

The real PNG is generated at /compare/claude-opus-4-8-vs-claude-opus-5/opengraph-image for crawlers.

PNG

CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.8

Elo 1,598

LiveBench73.6%

SWE-bench78.4%

Speed66 tok/s

Output cost$25/1M

Anthropic

Claude Opus 5

Elo 1,624

LiveBench74.8%

SWE-bench79.2%

Speed72 tok/s

Output cost$50/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?: Claude Opus 5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,624). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?: Claude Opus 5 leads SWE-bench at 79.2% vs 78.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Claude Opus 4.8 output tokens are $25/1M versus $50/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?: Claude Opus 5 has the lower time-to-first-token (310 ms vs 330 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Opus 4.8 accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Opus 4.8 matchups →|All Claude Opus 5 matchups →

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 4.6 (previous opus)Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 5 Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 Grok 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Opus 5 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.8 (2)vsClaude Opus 5 (7)

Claude Opus 4.8: 2W (22%)Overall: Claude Opus 5Claude Opus 5: 7W (78%)

← Claude Opus 4.81 tiesClaude Opus 5 →

Claude Opus 5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,598vs1,624

Coding Elo

1,604vs1,618

SWE-bench

78.4%vs79.2%

LiveBench

73.6%vs74.8%

GPQA Diamond

86.2%vs87.1%

Claude Opus 4.8: 0WClaude Opus 5: 5W

Claude Opus 5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

66 tok/svs72 tok/s

Time to first token

330 msvs310 ms

Claude Opus 4.8: 0WClaude Opus 5: 2W

Claude Opus 4.8 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$50/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$10/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Opus 4.8: 2WClaude Opus 5: 0W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 5

Higher SWE-bench (79.2%).

High-volume chatClaude Opus 4.8

Lower output list price ($25/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Opus 5

Lower TTFT (310 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.8

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 5

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 5).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 5	Higher SWE-bench (79.2%).
High-volume chat	Claude Opus 4.8	Lower output list price ($25/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Opus 5	Lower TTFT (310 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.8	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 5	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 5).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?

Claude Opus 5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,624). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?

Claude Opus 5 leads SWE-bench at 79.2% vs 78.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Claude Opus 4.8 output tokens are $25/1M versus $50/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.8 or Claude Opus 5?

Claude Opus 5 has the lower time-to-first-token (310 ms vs 330 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Opus 4.8 accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Opus 5

Claude Opus 5

Claude Opus 4.8

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Claude vs Gemini: coding, Elo, and output price — not a brand mashup

Claude vs GPT benchmark: this hub always remaps to the current Elo leaders

Claude Opus 5 is Anthropic’s default flagship — how to read it on CompareLLM

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4.8

Claude Opus 5

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Opus 5

Claude Opus 5

Claude Opus 4.8

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Claude vs Gemini: coding, Elo, and output price — not a brand mashup

Claude vs GPT benchmark: this hub always remaps to the current Elo leaders

Claude Opus 5 is Anthropic’s default flagship — how to read it on CompareLLM

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4.8

Claude Opus 5

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons