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opus 5 vs opus 5.5

See how Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 performs on tough reasoning tasks, with side-by-side cost, speed, and accuracy insights from real API runs.

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What the Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 Upgrade Really Changes

Anthropic says the newer model is cheaper and quicker. We put Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 through practical reasoning work to see if those promised gains actually appear.

  • What Anthropic Promises on Price and Pace
    The company claims a 40% lower bill, over 30% faster output, and reasoning on par with Claude Fable 5.1 rather than behind Opus 5.
  • New API Rate Card
    Opus 5.5 charges $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, down from $5 and $25 — a 20% reduction before any token savings.
  • How We Tested Reasoning
    Both models received the same prompts through the Anthropic API with adaptive thinking at default effort, one run per problem per model.

Our Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 Test Procedure

Three difficult reasoning problems, one run per model, with tokens, elapsed time, and list-price cost recorded on every API call.

Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5: Key Findings

We measured cost, token use, writing speed, and failure patterns across the Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 reasoning runs.

Logic Grid Precision

Both models filled all 28 grid cells correctly; Opus 5.5 added a caveat that it had not fully proven the answer was unique.

Output Token Savings

Opus 5.5 produced 62% fewer output tokens on the stone game and cost 43% less on the logic grid, mainly by writing less.

Streaming Throughput

Across every call, Opus 5.5 reached 103.4 tokens per second versus 93.1 for Opus 5 — about 11% faster, with a 19% best-case lead on one problem.

Per-Problem Spend

Opus 5.5 cost $0.16 versus $0.27 on the logic grid and $0.58 versus $1.88 on the stone game; total test spend was $10.50.

Where Both Models Stalled

The ordering puzzle beat both models: each can spend roughly 20 minutes thinking and return nothing, and Opus 5.5 ended with a refusal stop reason.

When to Use a Code Tool

If a task really requires counting — including the ordering test — give the model a code execution tool instead of trusting it to reason to the number.

FAQ

Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 Questions Answered

Answers to common questions about Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 pricing, response speed, reasoning quality, and safe cost controls.

1

Does Opus 5.5 Cost Less Than Opus 5?

Yes. It was 43% cheaper on the logic grid and 69% cheaper on the stone game, largely because it generated fewer output tokens.

2

Is Opus 5.5 Faster in Practice?

Yes, about 11% faster overall, with its largest single-problem advantage at 19% — still below the 30% improvement Anthropic advertises.

3

Does Opus 5.5 Reason More Accurately?

No. On these three problems the models were indistinguishable: both solved the logic grid and stone game, and both failed the constrained ordering puzzle.

4

Why Did Opus 5.5 Reject a Harmless Prompt?

On the ordering test it ended with a refusal stop reason and no text, most likely a safety filter mistakenly flagging a harmless request.

5

Should You Upgrade to Opus 5.5?

If you already use Opus 5, yes: hard-reasoning answers stay the same while cost and wait time shrink — but set a hard output limit first.

6

How Can You Keep Hard-Problem Costs Under Control?

Set a hard ceiling on output and monitor spend, since either model may think for around 20 minutes, return nothing, and still bill tokens.

Run Your Own Opus 5 vs Opus 5.5 Comparison

Copy the published prompts, test both models on your own setup, and move to Opus 5.5 with a hard output cap to capture the cost and speed gains.