AI Cost Calculator / Comparison
Which is cheaper for your workload: Gpt 5.6 or Claude Opus 5? Both are scored against the same three canonical workloads below using per-1M-token list pricing as of 2026-08-15. Claude Opus 5 is cheaper in 3 of 3 workloads — but your own token mix decides, so open the calculator with your numbers.
| Workload | Gpt 5.6 | Claude Opus 5 | Cheaper | Try it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Chat assistant 1.2K input / 400 output tokens per call, light prompt caching, 500 calls/day. | $276.00/mo | $246.00/mo | Claude Opus 5 | Open in calculator |
Long-context RAG 100K input / 500 output tokens per call, heavy cache reads, 200 calls/day. | $3270.00/mo | $3255.00/mo | Claude Opus 5 | Open in calculator |
Bulk classification 3K input / 20 output tokens per call, no caching, 100K calls/day. | $46800.00/mo | $46500.00/mo | Claude Opus 5 | Open in calculator |
| Model | Input /1M | Output /1M | Cache read /1M | Cache write /1M | Context | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gpt 5.6 frontier | $5.00 | $30.00 | $0.500 | $6.25 | 1,050,000 | OpenAI |
| Claude Opus 5 frontier | $5.00 | $25.00 | $0.500 | $6.25 | 1,000,000 | Anthropic |
Cache rates of — mean the provider has not published that tier. Batch API discounts (typically 50%) and negotiated rates are not included — toggle Batch mode in the calculator for those.
Token mix, caching, and volume flip the ranking constantly. Enter your real numbers and compare Gpt 5.6 vs Claude Opus 5 side by side — free, no account, runs in your browser.
Open the LLM Cost Calculator →