Best overall
Strong reasoning, tooling and production reliability.
Model · Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Sonnet 5 is served by Anthropic through OpenRouter. It provides 1M tokens of context and supports text, vision, files inputs.
Context window
1M tokens
Input / 1M tokens
$2.00
Output / 1M tokens
$10.00
Key facts
| Provider | Anthropic |
| OpenRouter ID | anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 |
| Modalities | Text, Vision, Files |
| Best for | Overall, Coding, Agents |
Source
openrouter.ai/api/v1/models Verified 2026-10-16 Drift-checked daily 06:00 CST Best-fit workloads
Best for coding
Good code quality, debugging and technical explanation.
Best for agents
Tool use, structured output and multi-step reasoning.
Cost estimates
These examples use the 2026-10-16 input and output prices. Cache discounts, provider surcharges and tool fees are excluded.
| Workload | Input | Output | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick test | 20,000 | 5,000 | $0.090 |
| Product chat month | 500,000 | 125,000 | $2.25 |
| Document batch | 5,000,000 | 1,000,000 | $20.00 |
Strengths
- ✓ Strong coding, writing and long-context reasoning
- ✓ Reliable tool-use and agent behavior
- ✓ Good default for production product work
Limitations
- ! Output cost is high for very large workloads
- ! Not the cheapest option for bulk classification
OpenRouter API quickstart
Run these examples from your server or edge function. Keep the OpenRouter API key private and do not expose it in browser code.
cURL
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Summarize this document in five bullet points." }],
"max_tokens": 500
}'JavaScript / TypeScript
const response = await fetch("https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.OPENROUTER_API_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5",
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Summarize this document in five bullet points." }],
max_tokens: 500,
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.choices[0].message.content);How to evaluate Claude Sonnet 5
- Run five real tasks from your product, not generic demo prompts.
- Record token usage, latency and output quality.
- Estimate cost using your real input/output mix.
- Compare it against one model with a similar price and one stronger model.
Compare models View on OpenRouter ↗
Claude Sonnet 5 FAQ
What is Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 is a Anthropic model available through OpenRouter. It supports text, vision, files inputs and is suited for overall, coding, agents workloads.
How much does Claude Sonnet 5 cost on OpenRouter?
The 2026-10-16 snapshot lists $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens. Verify current pricing on OpenRouter before production.
How large is Claude Sonnet 5's context window?
Claude Sonnet 5 offers 1M tokens of context in the current snapshot. Provider-specific limits and surcharges may apply.
Head-to-head comparisons
Claude Sonnet 5 vs OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol
Claude Sonnet 5 is often the better price/quality default for production coding and writing. GPT-5.6 Sol is the stronger choice when you want OpenAI tooling, structured output behavior and broad product-work coverage.
Google Gemini 3.7 Flash vs Claude Sonnet 5
Gemini 3.7 Flash is better for media, files and cost-sensitive multimodal work. Claude Sonnet 5 is the safer default for production coding, technical writing and agent workflows.
Pricing and context data are based on a 2026-10-16 snapshot. Provider limits can change; always verify on OpenRouter before production.