Model Comparison → Compare

Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.4

Our verdict

Claude Sonnet 5 is the better default for most production use cases — comparable quality at lower cost.

Claude Sonnet 5 ($3/M input) vs GPT-5.4 ($2.50/M input) — nearly the same price but Claude Sonnet 5 has a 200K context window vs GPT-5.4's 128K. On output, they're the same ($15/M). For most production workloads, Sonnet 5 is the right starting point; use GPT-5.4 if you need strict structured output mode or already have an OpenAI-centered infrastructure.

Side-by-side pricing

Claude Sonnet 5GPT-5.4
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
Input price/1M$3.00$2.50
Output price/1M$15.00$15.00
Cache read/1M$0.30$0.25
Context window200K1M
Vision
Tool use
Prompt caching
Speed tierStandardStandard

Prices verified 2026-08-20. See changelog for history.

Winner by task

Long document analysis
Claude Sonnet 5
200K context vs 128K
Strict JSON schema output
GPT-5.4
OpenAI structured output mode enforces schema at decoding level
Coding
Tie
Both score within 2-3% on HumanEval
Cost at high volume
GPT-5.4
$2.50 vs $3.00/M input — 17% cheaper on input-heavy workloads

Calculate costs for each model

Claude Sonnet 5 pricing →GPT-5.4 pricing →Calculate for your workload →

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper: GPT-5.4 or Claude Sonnet 5?

GPT-5.4 is slightly cheaper on input ($2.50 vs $3.00/M) and they're the same on output ($15/M). For input-heavy workloads (long documents), GPT-5.4 saves ~17% on input costs. For output-heavy workloads (long-form generation), they're identical.

Prices verified 2026-08-20. See methodology for calculation details.