// alternatives · October 2026
Claude Opus 4.8 alternatives
Cheaper models that come close, budget substitutes, and the cheapest step up — chosen on published LiveBench scores and live list price, never on our opinion. Every model here supports tool calling and image input, as Claude Opus 4.8 does.
LiveBench hasn't published a run for Claude Opus 4.8. The strongest benchmarked model at a similar or lower price is Claude Opus 5.5, scoring 85.1 overall.
Claude Opus 4.8: no published LiveBench run, $10.00 per 1M blended tokens, about $3,700/mo for a RAG assistant.
Benchmarked models at or below its price
Claude Opus 4.8 has no published LiveBench run, so these are the highest-scoring benchmarked models priced no more than 25% above it — a known quantity to test against.
| Model | Overall | vs Claude Opus 4.8 | Blended / 1M | RAG assistant | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5anthropic 20% cheaper. Head to head → | 85.1 | — | $8.00−20% | $2,880/mo | 1M |
| GPT-6.1 Solopenai 60% cheaper. Head to head → | 84.1 | — | $4.00−60% | $1,440/mo | 1.1M |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5anthropic 60% cheaper. Head to head → | 80.0 | — | $4.00−60% | $1,440/mo | 1M |
| Gemini 4 Argongoogle 60% cheaper. Head to head → | 79.3 | — | $4.00−60% | $1,440/mo | 1.0M |
| GPT-6.1 Terraopenai 80% cheaper. Head to head → | 77.8 | — | $2.00−80% | $720.00/mo | 1.1M |
| Muse Wondermeta 20% cheaper. Head to head → | 74.2 | — | $8.00−20% | $2,880/mo | 1.0M |
Claude Opus 4.8 alternatives FAQ
What is the best alternative to Claude Opus 4.8?
Claude Opus 5.5. 20% cheaper. Every suggestion supports tool calling and image input, like Claude Opus 4.8.
How alternatives are chosen
- Scores — LiveBench release 2026-10-25. Only models with a published run are suggested on quality; a missing model means “not evaluated”, not “worse”.
- Prices — live list prices from OpenRouter, blended 3:1 input:output. Monthly figures price a RAG assistant with the published cached-input rate where there is one.
- Same job — suggestions must support every capability Claude Opus 4.8 has among tool calling and image input. Other listings of the same model (free or batch tiers) are variants, not alternatives, and are left out.
A few points on a public benchmark can hide large differences on your own tasks. Shortlist here, then decide with an eval — how to build one.