Anthropic · Claude Opus 4.8
claude-opus-4-8Available from the provider.
- Released
- Deprecatednot announced
- Retirednot announced
Summary
Claude Opus 4.8 is the previous Opus release, at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens with a 1M-token context window and 128K max output. Anthropic marks it as legacy and points to Claude Opus 5, which costs the same.
Opus 4.8 was released on 28 May 2026 and was superseded by Claude Opus 5 on 24 July 2026. The two models share the same price, the same 1M-token context window and the same 128K max output; Opus 5 moves the knowledge cutoff from January 2026 to May 2026 and changes thinking behaviour.
It accepts text and image input and returns text, with adaptive thinking and effort defaulting to high. Anthropic lists the model as active, so existing calls keep working, but its documentation recommends migrating.
No deprecation has been announced. Anthropic commits to keeping Claude Opus 4.8 available until at least 28 May 2027.
Tags
Editorial tags reflect our assessment; documented tags are backed by the sources below.
Specifications
- Input price
- $5.00 / M tok
- Output price
- $25.00 / M tok
- Price class
- Premium
- Context window
- 1M tokens
- Max output
- 128,000 tokens
- Released
- 28 May 2026
- Input modalities
- text, image
- Output modalities
- text
- Knowledge cutoff
- January 2026
- Tool use
- Yes
- Structured output
- Yes
- License
- unknown
- Maker
- Anthropic
Use it for
- Keep an existing Opus 4.8 integration running while you test Claude Opus 5 against your evaluations.
- Stay on a pinned model during a release freeze, since the model ID is its own fixed snapshot.
- Compare output between Opus generations before you switch a production workload.
Avoid it when
- You are starting a new integration; Claude Opus 5 costs the same $5 / $25 and has a four-month-newer knowledge cutoff.
- You need knowledge of events after January 2026, which is where this model's reliable cutoff sits.
- Cost per call is a constraint; Claude Sonnet 5 covers much of the same work at $2 / $10.
Alternatives
What to use instead. Curated suggestions are written by our editors for this model; derived ones are ranked automatically from tags, tier and price class.
- Claude Opus 5curated
Anthropic
claude-opus-5The successor at an identical $5 / $25 with the same 1M-token window and a May 2026 knowledge cutoff instead of January 2026.
In $5.00 / M tokOut $25.00 / M tok
ActiveTextVisionChat+7 - Claude Sonnet 5curated
Anthropic
claude-sonnet-5The tier below at $2 / $10 with the same 1M-token context window, if depth matters less than cost.
In $2.00 / M tokOut $10.00 / M tok
ActiveTextVisionChat
Change history
Nothing has changed since this model was first recorded — no status change and no price change.
Price history
No price changes recorded yet.
Sources & verification
Facts
Status, dates, pricing and specifications were verified against these pages.
Last verified: (2026-09-23 04:30) · ✓ verified
Editorial profile
The summary, the advice and the curated alternatives are our assessment, not a provider claim.
Editorial profile reviewed on by llm-researcher.