--- title: "Is Claude Opus 4.8 still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/anthropic__claude-opus-4.8/ description: "Claude Opus 4.8: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is Claude Opus 4.8 still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Claude Opus 4.8: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is Claude Opus 4.8 a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Claude Opus 4.8 on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 13 undominated of 136 · Sep 23, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Sep 23, 2026, Claude Opus 4.8 is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. Claude Opus 5 scores 44.1 higher at the same price, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/anthropic__claude-opus-4.8/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=anthropic%2Fclaude-opus-4.8%2Canthropic%2Fclaude-opus-5) Current model Claude Opus 4.8 Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) Claude Opus 5 scores 44.1 points higher than Claude Opus 4.8 at the same price, $10.00 per million tokens for both. [Claude Opus 4.8](https://undominated.ai/models/anthropic__claude-opus-4.8/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1460.8 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $10.00/M [Claude Opus 5](https://undominated.ai/models/anthropic__claude-opus-5/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1504.9 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $10.00/M Claude Opus 4.8 takes text, image, file, returns up to 128,000 tokens from a 1,000,000-token context, and is listed by 11 sellers. Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 5 models dominate it and give up nothing, 5 more dominate it but give something up. Claude Opus 4.8 scores 1460.8 at $10.00 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Claude Opus 5](/models/anthropic__claude-opus-5/) | 1504.9 +44.1 | $10.00/M | 0% | | [Claude Opus 4.6](/models/anthropic__claude-opus-4.6/) | 1503.0 +42.2 | $10.00/M | 0% | | [Claude Opus 4.7](/models/anthropic__claude-opus-4.7/) | 1490.0 +29.2 | $10.00/M | 0% | | [Muse Spark 1.3](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.3/) | 1489.7 +28.9 | $2.00/M | 80% | | [Muse Spark 1.1](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.1/) | 1480.2 +19.4 | $2.00/M | 80% | ## Higher score, lower price, named losses Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Gemini 3.8 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) | 1494.7 | $1.50/M | max output | | [Gemini 3.7 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.7-flash/) | 1490.5 | $1.50/M | max output | | [Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview](/models/google__gemini-3.1-pro-preview/) | 1480.1 | $4.50/M | max output | | [Gemini 3.6 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.6-flash/) | 1476.1 | $1.50/M | max output | | [Gemini 3.5 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.5-flash/) | 1475.7 | $3.38/M | max output | 136 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)