Pick Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 or agentic coding — within 0.5% of fable 5's peak cursorbench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (anthropic's figures). Pick GPT-6 Astra for computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%) or cybersecurity exploit development (exploitbench 100%). On a tight budget at scale, Claude Opus 5 is the value pick.
Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) and GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Opus 5 is anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. GPT-6 Astra is openAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences
Price: Claude Opus 5 is about 2× cheaper on input ($5/$25 per 1M tokens vs $10/$50 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
Context window: 1M vs 1.05M tokens — within a few percent of each other, so treat this as a tie and test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
Recency: GPT-6 Astra is the newer model by about 41 days (released September 3, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Specifications
Spec
Claude Opus 5
GPT-6 Astra
Provider
Anthropic (US)
OpenAI (US)
Released
July 24, 2026
September 3, 2026
Context window
1M (~1,500 pages)
1.05M tokens (~1,575 pages)
Price (in/out)
$5/$25 per 1M tokens
$10/$50 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
No — API only
No — API only
Modalities
text, image, code
text, image
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
96.3%
Who wins what
Frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1: Claude Opus 5 — At $5/$25 per 1M tokens it undercuts GPT-6 Astra ($10/$50 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.
Agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures): Claude Opus 5 — GPT-6 Astra is comparatively weak here — trails Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 on some coding evals (DeepSWE v1.1: 74.1 vs 75.4)
Computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost: Claude Opus 5 — Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak — and it runs cheaper at $5/$25 per 1M tokens.
Computer & browser use (ScreenSpot-Pro 92.7%): GPT-6 Astra — OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks — and it is the newer of the two.
Cybersecurity exploit development (ExploitBench 100%): GPT-6 Astra — Claude Opus 5 is comparatively weak here — behind Mythos 5 on cybersecurity exploitation and biology research, by Anthropic's own account
Frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%): GPT-6 Astra — GPT-6 Astra lists frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%) among its strengths; Claude Opus 5 does not.
Lowest cost at scale: Claude Opus 5 — At $5/$25 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume: Claude Opus 5 — At $5/$25 per 1M tokens it undercuts GPT-6 Astra, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases: GPT-6 Astra — Larger 1.05M tokens window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1: Claude Opus 5 — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%): GPT-6 Astra — That is its strongest area.
Claude Opus 5: where it fits
Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. Released July 24, 2026 by Anthropic, it is built for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1, agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures), computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost, and a native effort setting (low, medium, high, xhigh, max) that trades token cost against capability on a single model.
Its trade-offs are real: behind Mythos 5 on cybersecurity exploitation and biology research, by Anthropic's own account, all launch benchmarks are Anthropic-reported and not yet independently reproduced, no published SWE-Bench Verified score, so head-to-head coding comparisons rely on Anthropic's own benchmark suite, and fast mode's throughput costs double the base price ($10/$50 per 1M). At $5 in / $25 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.
GPT-6 Astra: where it fits
OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks. Released September 3, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for computer & browser use (ScreenSpot-Pro 92.7%), cybersecurity exploit development (ExploitBench 100%), frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%), and long-context recall (MRCR v2 512K-1M: 96.3%).
Its trade-offs: no native audio or video input, pricing doubles for prompts over 272K tokens (input/cache 2x, output 1.5x), trails Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 on some coding evals (DeepSWE v1.1: 74.1 vs 75.4), and a separate opt-in "Daybreak" program gives vetted cybersecurity defenders a less-restricted version for legitimate vulnerability research; the public version already refuses ~91.5% of offensive cyber jailbreak attempts by default. At $10 in / $50 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Claude Opus 5 and GPT-6 Astra overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. Claude Opus 5 costs less per token; GPT-6 Astra holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1, GPT-6 Astra for computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%). Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Opus 5 or GPT-6 Astra better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Opus 5 leans toward frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 while GPT-6 Astra leans toward computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-6 Astra?
Claude Opus 5 is cheaper — $5/$25 per 1M tokens vs $10/$50 per 1M tokens, roughly 2× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Effectively neither — 1M vs 1.05M tokens is a difference of a few percent. Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-6 Astra together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Opus 5, GPT-6 Astra and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-6 Astra?
GPT-6 Astra — released September 3, 2026, about 41 days after Claude Opus 5.
Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-6 Astra
Anthropic · US | OpenAI · US · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 or agentic coding — within 0.5% of fable 5's peak cursorbench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (anthropic's figures). Pick GPT-6 Astra for computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%) or cybersecurity exploit development (exploitbench 100%). On a tight budget at scale, Claude Opus 5 is the value pick.
Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) and GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Opus 5 is anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. GPT-6 Astra is openAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences at a glance
▸Price: Claude Opus 5 is about 2× cheaper on input ($5/$25 per 1M tokens vs $10/$50 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
▸Context window: 1M vs 1.05M tokens — within a few percent of each other, so treat this as a tie and test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
▸Recency: GPT-6 Astra is the newer model by about 41 days (released September 3, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Claude Opus 5
GPT-6 Astra
Provider
Anthropic (US)
OpenAI (US)
Released
July 24, 2026
September 3, 2026
Context window
1M (~1,500 pages)
1.05M tokens (~1,575 pages)
Price (in/out)
$5/$25 per 1M tokens
$10/$50 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
No — API only
No — API only
Modalities
text, image, code
text, image
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
96.3%
Who wins what
Frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1
Claude Opus 5
At $5/$25 per 1M tokens it undercuts GPT-6 Astra ($10/$50 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.
Agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures)
Claude Opus 5
GPT-6 Astra is comparatively weak here — trails Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 on some coding evals (DeepSWE v1.1: 74.1 vs 75.4)
Computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost
Claude Opus 5
Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak — and it runs cheaper at $5/$25 per 1M tokens.
Computer & browser use (ScreenSpot-Pro 92.7%)
GPT-6 Astra
OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks — and it is the newer of the two.
Cybersecurity exploit development (ExploitBench 100%)
GPT-6 Astra
Claude Opus 5 is comparatively weak here — behind Mythos 5 on cybersecurity exploitation and biology research, by Anthropic's own account
Frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%)
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra lists frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%) among its strengths; Claude Opus 5 does not.
Lowest cost at scale
Claude Opus 5
At $5/$25 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ Claude Opus 5
At $5/$25 per 1M tokens it undercuts GPT-6 Astra, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ GPT-6 Astra
Larger 1.05M tokens window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1
→ Claude Opus 5
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%)
→ GPT-6 Astra
That is its strongest area.
Claude Opus 5: where it fits
Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. Released July 24, 2026 by Anthropic, it is built for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1, agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures), computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost, and a native effort setting (low, medium, high, xhigh, max) that trades token cost against capability on a single model.
Its trade-offs are real: behind Mythos 5 on cybersecurity exploitation and biology research, by Anthropic's own account, all launch benchmarks are Anthropic-reported and not yet independently reproduced, no published SWE-Bench Verified score, so head-to-head coding comparisons rely on Anthropic's own benchmark suite, and fast mode's throughput costs double the base price ($10/$50 per 1M). At $5 in / $25 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.
GPT-6 Astra: where it fits
OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks. Released September 3, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for computer & browser use (ScreenSpot-Pro 92.7%), cybersecurity exploit development (ExploitBench 100%), frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%), and long-context recall (MRCR v2 512K-1M: 96.3%).
Its trade-offs: no native audio or video input, pricing doubles for prompts over 272K tokens (input/cache 2x, output 1.5x), trails Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 on some coding evals (DeepSWE v1.1: 74.1 vs 75.4), and a separate opt-in "Daybreak" program gives vetted cybersecurity defenders a less-restricted version for legitimate vulnerability research; the public version already refuses ~91.5% of offensive cyber jailbreak attempts by default. At $10 in / $50 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Claude Opus 5 and GPT-6 Astra overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. Claude Opus 5 costs less per token; GPT-6 Astra holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1, GPT-6 Astra for computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%). Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Want both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-6 Astra without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
Is Claude Opus 5 or GPT-6 Astra better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Opus 5 leans toward frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 while GPT-6 Astra leans toward computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-6 Astra?
Claude Opus 5 is cheaper — $5/$25 per 1M tokens vs $10/$50 per 1M tokens, roughly 2× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Effectively neither — 1M vs 1.05M tokens is a difference of a few percent. Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-6 Astra together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Opus 5, GPT-6 Astra and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-6 Astra?
GPT-6 Astra — released September 3, 2026, about 41 days after Claude Opus 5.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.