NEW SONNETINTRO PRICEAGENTICTEXT + VISIONPROMPT CACHING
Claude Sonnet 5 API Pricing
Claude Sonnet 5 is Anthropic's newest Sonnet model for coding, agents, computer use, and high-volume professional workflows. Anthropic lists an introductory API price of $2/M input and $10/M output through August 31, 2026, then standard Sonnet pricing of $3/M input and $15/M output starts on September 1, 2026.
Input - per 1M tokens
$2.00/M
Through Aug 31, 2026 intro
Output - per 1M tokens
$10.00/M
Then $15/M output intro
Cached input - derived 90% off
$0.20/M
Prompt cache Anthropic savings rule -90%
Effective - agentic blend
$1.28/M
92/8 split - 82% cache
§ 01 / TERMINAL
Run the numbers.
Calculator pre-loaded with the current Claude Sonnet 5 introductory API rate. The standard $3/M input and $15/M output tier is scheduled for September 1, 2026.
$ /mo
Workload split
Prompt cache hit rate
Tokens you can process
—
Words equivalent (English)
—
Effective rate
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§ 02 / SCENARIOS
Real-world presets.
SUPPORT AGENT
Ticket triage with tools
$0.021/ticket
CODING AGENT
Repo-wide bug fix
$0.183/task
LONG DOC ANALYSIS
Contract risk review
$0.206/doc
RESEARCH OPS
Analyst brief draft
$0.071/brief
§ 03 / TOKENIZER
Paste text. See tokens. See cost.
Estimate · anthropic-bpe-estimate · ≈2.6 chars/token Auto-counts as you type
This is a chars-per-token approximation, not a real tokenizer. Actual tokens vary by language, code density, and tool-call overhead — counts are typically ±10–20% off for English prose, more for code or non-Latin scripts. For exact billing, use the vendor's official tokenizer.
Characters 654
Words 103
Tokens (estimated) 252 tokens
Cost as input · uncached $0.000504 USD
Cost as output · uncached $0.002520 USD
Cost as cached input $0.000050 USD
| Model | Input /M | Output /M | Effective blended | Context | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5 Current | $2.00 cache $0.20 | $10.00 | $1.28 intro price | 1M | New Sonnet daily driver |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3.00 cache $0.30 | $15.00 | $1.92 standard Sonnet price | 1M | Existing Sonnet migrations |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | $5.00 cache $0.50 | $25.00 | $3.21 harder reasoning sibling | 1M | High-stakes Opus workloads |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1.00 cache $0.10 | $5.00 | $0.64 cheaper Anthropic tier | 200K | Support and classification |
| Claude Fable 5 | $10.00 cache $1.00 | $50.00 | $6.41 higher-tier Claude | 1M | Archive price; access suspended |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | $5.00 cache $0.50 | $30.00 | $3.61 frontier competitor | 1M | OpenAI frontier agents |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | $1.50 cache $0.15 | $9.00 | $1.08 cheaper multimodal peer | 1M | Google multimodal agents |
| Fugu Ultra | $5.00 cache $0.50 | $30.00 | $3.61 multi-agent competitor | 272K | Orchestrated multi-agent tasks |
Frequently asked.
Practical Claude Sonnet 5 pricing questions, including the introductory API rate, the September 1 standard-price transition, and derived cache math.
Q · 01 What is Claude Sonnet 5 priced at? +
Anthropic lists Claude Sonnet 5 at an introductory
$2/M input and $10/M output through August 31, 2026. Starting September 1, 2026, it moves to standard Sonnet pricing of $3/M input and $15/M output.Q · 02 Is the $0.20/M cached input price official? +
Anthropic's Sonnet 5 page says prompt caching can save up to
90%. AI//COST derives $0.20/M cache-hit input from that rule against the current $2/M introductory input price. Treat it as derived until Anthropic itemizes Sonnet 5 in the main pricing table.Q · 03 What model ID should developers use? +
Anthropic says to use
claude-sonnet-5 via the Claude API. It is available natively on Claude Platform and through AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry.Q · 04 How much will Sonnet 5 cost after the intro period? +
From September 1, 2026, Anthropic says Sonnet 5 moves to
$3/M input and $15/M output. Under the same 92/8 agentic blend with 82% cache hits, that standard tier works out to about $1.92/M blended, compared with $1.28/M during the intro period.Q · 05 Is there a Batch API discount? +
Yes. Anthropic's Sonnet 5 page points to 50% savings with batch processing. On the current introductory rate, that implies
$1/M input and $5/M output for eligible batch workloads.Q · 06 Does US-only inference change the price? +
Yes. Anthropic says workloads that need to run in the US can use US-only inference at
1.1x pricing for input and output tokens. The headline prices on this page use standard global routing.Q · 07 What is Sonnet 5 best for? +
Anthropic positions Sonnet 5 for advanced coding, long-running agents, browser and computer use, enterprise workflows, customer-facing agents, and high-volume production tasks where Sonnet speed and cost matter.
Q · 08 Should I use Sonnet 5 instead of Sonnet 4.6? +
For new Claude API work, yes while it is available and the introductory price is active. Sonnet 5 is newer and currently cheaper than Sonnet 4.6's standard
$3/$15 price band. Keep Sonnet 4.6 only where you need an existing pinned migration target.