Model vs model
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 are both in llmwise. What each gets on every plan, what it reads, how it's served and what happens when its provider fails, from the catalog and the code that runs them.
Model prices and specs checked against OpenRouter's Claude Sonnet 5.5 page, OpenRouter's Claude Sonnet 5 page. Updated .
Short answer
They cost the same in llmwise: up to 125 messages a month on Pro on either. Otherwise, only Claude Sonnet 5.5 can be passed to another model by its maker's safety system. In our test runs, Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 47 of the 50 prompts both answered and Claude Sonnet 5 46; 5 prompts split them, most on summarization (4 to 3).
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5, prompt by prompt
Every prompt Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 both answered, compared directly, their biggest differences first. One run each, through OpenRouter: a wait depends on the provider and the load that day, so a lead under 10% counts as close.
Of the 50 prompts both answered, both passed 44, only Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 3, only Claude Sonnet 5 passed 2, and neither passed 1. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered sooner on 45 of the 50 and Claude Sonnet 5 on 2; the rest were within 10% of each other. The 50 replies cost $0.1912 on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $0.2030 on Claude Sonnet 5: about the same for both.
The 5 prompts only one of Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 passed
Announce a second bakery shop on LinkedIn (writing): Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed and Claude Sonnet 5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5.5: Graded 4.5 of 5 on average (lowest 4). Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 3.5 of 5 on average (lowest 3).
Argue both sides of free buses (writing): Claude Sonnet 5 passed and Claude Sonnet 5.5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5.5: Graded 4.7 of 5 on average (lowest 4); but a paragraph of 98 words, over the 90 allowed. Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 4.0 of 5 on average (lowest 4).
An article in three bullets (summarization): Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed and Claude Sonnet 5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5.5: Graded 4.7 of 5 on average (lowest 4). Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 3.7 of 5 on average (lowest 3).
Correlation between ad spend and sign-ups (data analysis): Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed and Claude Sonnet 5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5.5: Final answer 0.97: right. Claude Sonnet 5: Final answer 0.99; expected 0.97.
A frustrated customer (customer support): Claude Sonnet 5 passed and Claude Sonnet 5.5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5.5: Graded 3.7 of 5 on average (lowest 2). Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 4.3 of 5 on average (lowest 4).
Job by job, the widest gaps first
Data analysis: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 4 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 2.3× sooner at the median, 2.3 s against 5.3 s. Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost 1.5× less, $0.0235 against $0.0344 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5.5's replies ran 89% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Customer support: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 4 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.4× sooner at the median, 2.5 s against 3.5 s. Claude Sonnet 5 cost 1.3× less, $0.0232 against $0.0182 for the 5 replies. Their replies ran to about the same length.
Summarization: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 4 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 3 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.4× sooner at the median, 1.9 s against 2.7 s. Claude Sonnet 5 cost 1.2× less, $0.0168 against $0.0140 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5.5's replies ran 18% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Coding: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.4× sooner at the median, 2.0 s against 2.7 s. Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost 1.6× less, $0.0313 against $0.0508 for the 5 replies. Their replies ran to about the same length.
Translation: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.2× sooner at the median, 2.3 s against 2.8 s. Claude Sonnet 5 cost 1.4× less, $0.0211 against $0.0149 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5.5's replies ran 55% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Math: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 2.4× sooner at the median, 1.7 s against 3.9 s. Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost 1.3× less, $0.0123 against $0.0165 for the 5 replies. Their replies ran to about the same length.
SQL: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.2× sooner at the median, 1.8 s against 2.2 s. Claude Sonnet 5 cost 1.3× less, $0.0190 against $0.0142 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5.5's replies ran 46% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
RAG and answering from documents: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.3× sooner at the median, 1.4 s against 1.8 s. Claude Sonnet 5 cost 1.3× less, $0.0140 against $0.0109 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5.5's replies ran 49% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Agents and tool use: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 5 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 5 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.4× sooner at the median, 1.4 s against 2.0 s. They cost about the same, $0.0129 against $0.0121 for the 5 replies. Their replies ran to about the same length.
Writing: Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 4 of 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 4 of 5. Claude Sonnet 5.5 answered 1.9× sooner at the median, 2.3 s against 4.5 s. They cost about the same, $0.0171 against $0.0171 for the 5 replies. Their replies ran to about the same length.
All 50 prompts: who passed, who answered sooner, who cost less
| Prompt | Result | Sooner | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turn a title into a URL slug | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×took 1.8 s and 2.3 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.1×cost $0.0028 and $0.0024 |
| Parse a duration like “1h 30m” | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×took 2.0 s and 2.6 s | Closecost $0.0036 and $0.0036 |
| Merge overlapping intervals | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.9×took 1.4 s and 2.7 s | Closecost $0.0033 and $0.0034 |
| Evaluate an arithmetic expression, no eval | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 3.5×took 4.8 s and 16.9 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.2×cost $0.0102 and $0.0226 |
| Parse CSV with quoted fields | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 3.0×took 5.3 s and 15.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.6×cost $0.0114 and $0.0187 |
| Announce a second bakery shop on LinkedIn | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 3.3 s and 4.6 s | Closecost $0.0035 and $0.0037 |
| Rewrite corporate jargon in plain words | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.7×took 1.6 s and 2.7 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.1×cost $0.0025 and $0.0022 |
| Decline a meeting and offer two times | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.2×took 2.3 s and 2.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0030 and $0.0026 |
| A product announcement with five rules | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.9×took 2.3 s and 4.5 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.2×cost $0.0030 and $0.0035 |
| Argue both sides of free buses | Only Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.5×took 4.4 s and 6.6 s | Closecost $0.0051 and $0.0050 |
| A discount, then sales tax | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.2×took 1.6 s and 1.9 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.1×cost $0.0017 and $0.0015 |
| Pens at 3 for $4 | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.9×took 2.2 s and 6.3 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.7×cost $0.0036 and $0.0061 |
| Compound interest over three years | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.9×took 1.3 s and 3.7 s | Closecost $0.0021 and $0.0021 |
| Four-digit numbers whose digits sum to 9 | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.5×took 1.8 s and 4.5 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.5×cost $0.0026 and $0.0039 |
| The highest of three dice is a 5 | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.4×took 1.7 s and 3.9 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×cost $0.0022 and $0.0028 |
| An article in three bullets | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 1.9 s and 2.6 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.1×cost $0.0031 and $0.0027 |
| An email thread in one sentence | Neither passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.6×took 1.4 s and 2.3 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0023 and $0.0019 |
| Decisions and action items from a meeting | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×took 2.2 s and 2.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.3×cost $0.0043 and $0.0033 |
| A quarterly memo for the CEO | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.6×took 1.8 s and 3.0 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.1×cost $0.0037 and $0.0033 |
| A study with a negative result | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.1×took 2.4 s and 2.7 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0034 and $0.0028 |
| The region with the most revenue | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.6×took 2.4 s and 6.4 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.3×cost $0.0051 and $0.0041 |
| Average order value in August | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.3×took 1.7 s and 3.9 s | Closecost $0.0037 and $0.0041 |
| Revenue change from July to August | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.3×took 2.3 s and 5.3 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×cost $0.0048 and $0.0062 |
| A median, filtered two ways | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 3.2×took 1.5 s and 4.9 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.2×cost $0.0030 and $0.0036 |
| Correlation between ad spend and sign-ups | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 3.3×took 4.2 s and 13.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.4×cost $0.0070 and $0.0165 |
| A late order | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 2.5 s and 3.5 s | Closecost $0.0038 and $0.0036 |
| A return inside the window | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×took 2.2 s and 2.9 s | Closecost $0.0035 and $0.0032 |
| A frustrated customer | Only Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.6×took 2.7 s and 4.4 s | Closecost $0.0042 and $0.0041 |
| A refund request outside the window | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.6×took 2.0 s and 3.2 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0038 and $0.0031 |
| A message with a planted instruction | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.3×took 6.1 s and 4.6 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.9×cost $0.0079 and $0.0041 |
| A delivery message into Spanish | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.8×took 1.5 s and 2.7 s | Closecost $0.0032 and $0.0029 |
| A product description into French | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 1.8 s and 2.5 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.1×cost $0.0032 and $0.0029 |
| A meeting note into German | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.2×took 2.3 s and 2.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.4×cost $0.0038 and $0.0027 |
| Idioms into natural Japanese | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 2.9 s and 4.1 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.7×cost $0.0046 and $0.0028 |
| A lease clause into Brazilian Portuguese | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×took 4.4 s and 3.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.8×cost $0.0063 and $0.0036 |
| Customers in one country | Both passed | Closetook 1.8 s and 1.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0024 and $0.0020 |
| Count orders by status | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.0×took 1.0 s and 2.0 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0024 and $0.0020 |
| Revenue by category | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 2.2×took 1.6 s and 3.5 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.3×cost $0.0039 and $0.0031 |
| Every customer, even those without orders | Both passed | Closetook 2.3 s and 2.2 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.4×cost $0.0043 and $0.0030 |
| Monthly revenue with a running total | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.1×took 2.7 s and 3.0 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.4×cost $0.0060 and $0.0042 |
| A fact from one section | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.2×took 1.4 s and 1.7 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.4×cost $0.0027 and $0.0019 |
| Core hours and start times | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.5×took 1.4 s and 2.1 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.3×cost $0.0027 and $0.0022 |
| Two sections in one answer | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 1.3 s and 1.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0027 and $0.0022 |
| A later amendment changes the answer | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.7×took 1.2 s and 2.1 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0031 and $0.0026 |
| A question the handbook doesn't answer | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×took 1.4 s and 1.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.5×cost $0.0028 and $0.0019 |
| Pick the tool and work out the date | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×took 1.3 s and 1.7 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0021 and $0.0018 |
| Convert a currency | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.9×took 1.0 s and 2.0 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0021 and $0.0018 |
| Book a meeting from a sentence | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 3.8×took 1.5 s and 5.7 s | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.4×cost $0.0026 and $0.0037 |
| Search, but don't book | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1.3×took 1.4 s and 1.9 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×cost $0.0023 and $0.0020 |
| Two calls with a unit conversion | Both passed | Closetook 3.7 s and 3.8 s | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.3×cost $0.0038 and $0.0028 |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 in our test runs
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 on the same prompts, job by job: how many replies passed their check.
Based on 100 of our test runs on , through OpenRouter with the app's own prompt and settings. Updated .
| Job | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Writing | 4 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
| Math | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Summarization | 4 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
| Data analysis | 5 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
| Customer support | 4 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Translation | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| SQL | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| RAG and answering from documents | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Agents and tool use | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| All jobs | 47 of 50 · 1 message each · $0.0038 a reply | 46 of 50 · 1 message each · $0.0041 a reply |
The same prompts, sent to both through llmwise's own pipeline and checked the same way: five for each job. A bold count is the one that passed more. Messages: what each reply counted as on Pro. Cost: what OpenRouter charged us per reply, on average. Every prompt, and how it's scored.
Where they differed most, summarization: both replies to a prompt only one of them passed.
An everyday prompt: “An article in three bullets”, in full.
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Passed: Graded 4.7 of 5 on average (lowest 4).
- Aldmoor's six-month Market Street bike-lane trial raised daily bike trips from about 900 to 2,300, cut car traffic 14%, and added just over a minute to rush-hour drives. - Injuries fell from nine to two; businesses were split, with 27 reporting more customers, 19 fewer. - Council votes in November; permanence would cost another €1.1 million.
729 tokens in, 130 out · 1.9 s · $0.0031 · 1 message on Pro · answered by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 via Anthropic ·
Claude Sonnet 5
Failed: Graded 3.7 of 5 on average (lowest 3).
- Aldmoor's 6-month trial bike lanes tripled cyclist trips (900→2,300/day), cut car traffic 14%, but added ~1 min to rush-hour drives. - Business impact mixed: 27 of 60 shops saw more customers, 19 fewer. - Injuries dropped (9→2); permanent install would cost €1.1M more.
725 tokens in, 125 out · 2.6 s · $0.0027 · 1 message on Pro · answered by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 via Claude Platform on AWS ·
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 on every plan
Whether the one-time free trial reaches each model, then each paid plan's messages on it.
| Plan | Price | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | In the one-time trial of 5 messages | In the one-time trial of 5 messages |
| Pro | $20 a month | Up to 125 a month | Up to 125 a month |
| Max | $50 a month | Up to 400 a month | Up to 400 a month |
| Ultra | $100 a month | Up to 900 a month | Up to 900 a month |
| Studio | $200 a month | Up to 2,000 a month | Up to 2,000 a month |
Prices don't include tax, which is added where it applies and shown before you pay. A paid plan's month is one allowance shared by every model, so each monthly count is the most you get if all of it goes to that model. It renews each billing period; everyday models refill daily at 00:00 UTC. Long chats count more per reply. How pricing works.
Every limit is published. Paid plans also have a monthly fair-use limit on AI cost: Pro $7.50, Max $20, Ultra $42, Studio $85. Using every message on your plan at typical sizes stays under it; very large messages and heavy research use it faster. Every limit, explained.
What differs
Messages on Pro
They cost the same in llmwise: up to 125 messages a month on Pro on either.
Context window
Both take up to 1M tokens of context. A chat in llmwise holds up to 200k tokens, which fits in either, so the difference shows only through each maker's own API.
Images and PDFs
Both read images. Both take a PDF as the whole file, pages and all.
On Free
Both are in the free trial.
Where messages go
Both are Claude models, served the same way. Sent to Anthropic directly.
Fact by fact
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Reads images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Whole file | Whole file |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| API price (September 2026) | $2.00 in / $10.00 out per million tokens | $2.00 in / $10.00 out per million tokens |
| A typical message at API prices (4,000 tokens in, 700 out) | $0.0150 | $0.0150 |
| A $10 top-up adds | 100 messages | 100 messages |
| Where a message goes | Sent to Anthropic directly. | Sent to Anthropic directly. |
| If the provider fails | If Anthropic fails before the reply starts (an overload, a server error, a dropped connection), llmwise sends the same request to Claude Sonnet 5.5 through OpenRouter instead. | If Anthropic fails before the reply starts (an overload, a server error, a dropped connection), llmwise sends the same request to Claude Sonnet 5 through OpenRouter instead. |
| Anthropic's safety fallback | Anthropic's safety system can pass a Claude Sonnet 5.5 message to another Claude model. The reply then names the model that answered and says what you were charged for. | Doesn't apply |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5?
From the facts above and our test runs: the rest is how their answers suit your work, which one chat can show you.
On the facts llmwise keeps, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 are level: same count, same files, same context. Pick the one whose answers you prefer.
Each model's page, the families, and other pairs
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 is one pair of models. The page below covers the whole family.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5: price, limits and messages on every plan
- Claude Sonnet 5: price, limits and messages on every plan
- Claude playground: try Claude online
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro (preview)
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Claude Fable 5.1 vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- Every model-vs-model page
Both are made by the same company, so they're served the same way.
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5 cheaper in llmwise?
They cost the same in llmwise: up to 125 messages a month on Pro on either. Every paid plan's monthly allowance is shared by all models, so each count is the most you get if it all goes to that model.
Can I try Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 for free?
Yes: both are in the free trial of 5 messages.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Neither: both take 1M tokens. A chat in llmwise holds up to 200k tokens, which fits in either, so the difference shows only through each maker's own API.
Can I use Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5 in the same chat?
Yes. Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 for one message and Claude Sonnet 5 for the next; the second sees the whole chat, including the first one's answer.
Which did better in your test runs, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5?
On the same 50 prompts, run on September 28, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 passed 47 and Claude Sonnet 5 passed 46. The table on this page has each job, and every reply is published.
Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Kimi, and GLM, in one chat.
See what a message costs before you send it. Free is 5 messages to try; sign in with an email link, no password or card.