How much cheaper is Claude Sonnet 5 than GPT-5.5?

Claude Sonnet 5 costs $3/$15 per 1M tokens while GPT-5.5 costs $5/$30 per 1M tokens. Sonnet 5 is 40% cheaper on input and 50% cheaper on output. For a typical workload of 1M input + 500K output tokens/month, Sonnet 5 costs $10.50 vs GPT-5.5's $20 — saving $9.50/month. At 10M input + 5M output, savings reach $95/month.

Is GPT-5.5 worth the extra cost over Sonnet 5?

GPT-5.5 at $5/$30 offers the highest OpenAI quality with 1.05M context. Claude Sonnet 5 at $3/$15 delivers comparable quality for 40-50% less. Choose GPT-5.5 when you need absolute peak performance on complex reasoning or OpenAI ecosystem integration. Choose Sonnet 5 when you want near-identical quality at significantly lower cost — Anthropic's newest model is optimized for speed and intelligence at a competitive price point.

Which has a larger context window?

GPT-5.5 has a slightly larger context window at 1.05M tokens vs Claude Sonnet 5's 1M tokens. Both support over 1M tokens, making them directly comparable for long-document processing and large codebases. The 50K token difference is negligible for most use cases.

When should I use Sonnet 5 over GPT-5.5?

Choose Claude Sonnet 5 ($3/$15) when cost efficiency matters: high-volume workloads, batch processing, content generation, and code generation where 40-50% savings add up. Choose GPT-5.5 ($5/$30) when you need absolute peak performance, OpenAI ecosystem integration, or the slightly larger 1.05M context window. For most production workloads, Sonnet 5 offers better value.

Does Sonnet 5 have introductory pricing?

Yes. Claude Sonnet 5 offers introductory pricing of $2/$10 per MTok through August 31, 2026 — 33% cheaper than standard. After August 31, it returns to $3/$15. GPT-5.5 has no announced introductory pricing at $5/$30.