Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Sonnet 5 — the best balance of capability and cost in Anthropic's lineup.
| Type | Price / 1M tokens | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $3.00 | Per 1M input tokens |
| Output | $15.00 | Per 1M output tokens |
| Cache read | $0.30 | Cached prefix read-back |
| Cache write | $3.75 | Anthropic 5m TTL; 2× for 1h TTL |
| Batch API | $1.50 in / $7.50 out | ~50% off, async (up to 24h) |
At $3/M input and $15/M output, Sonnet 5 delivers near-Opus quality for most professional tasks.
Best for
- Production chatbots and customer support
- Code generation and debugging
- Summarization at scale
- RAG pipeline generation
Not ideal for
- Absolute maximum reasoning quality
- Cost-sensitive classification at millions of requests
Real cost scenarios
| Scenario | Est. monthly cost | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| 1M requests/month — 1k in, 300 out | $7,500 | $3,000 input + $4,500 output |
| Customer support chatbot — 50k conv/month | $4,500 | 10 turns avg, 500 tokens/turn |
Estimates with typical token distributions. Use the Prompt Cost Calculator for your exact workload.
How to cut costs on Claude Sonnet 5
- Cache your system prompt — at $3/M input and 85% hit rate, a 3,000-token system prompt saves ~$7.50 per 1,000 calls.
- For simple queries in your workload, route to Haiku 4.5 — 3-4× cheaper with similar quality on classification tasks.
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Other Anthropic models
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Frequently Asked Questions
How does Claude Sonnet 5 compare to GPT-5.4?
On most coding and reasoning benchmarks they are within 2-3%. Sonnet 5 has a larger context window (200K vs 128K) and better document analysis. GPT-5.4 has a larger ecosystem of third-party integrations. For most production workloads, choose based on which API fits your infrastructure better.
Does Claude Sonnet 5 support tool/function calling?
Yes — full tool use support including parallel tool calls, forced tool choice, and streaming tool call results. Compatible with most agent frameworks including LangChain, LangGraph, and direct SDK use.
Pricing verified 2026-08-19 from Anthropic official pricing. All prices in USD per 1M tokens. See methodology and price changelog.