Opus 4.8

The LLM landscape changes so fast that yesterday’s pricing data is effectively obsolete. By backporting real API costs onto current leaderboards, we can see exactly how these models stack up when they aren't hiding behind $20 monthly subscriptions. For developers building autonomous agents, these numbers are the difference between a profitable tool and a financial sinkhole. Opus 4.8 delivers efficiency gains Evidence shows that Opus 4.8 is actually cheaper to run than its predecessor, Opus 4.7. Through rigorous testing across four projects and 20 distinct prompts, the new model consistently consumed fewer tokens for the same output quality. This suggests internal optimizations at Anthropic are finally focusing on inference efficiency, which should eventually translate to better hourly rate limits for subscription users. GPT 5.5 remains a luxury tier In a direct comparison of medium-effort tasks, GPT 5.5 emerges as the most expensive model by a significant margin. While it remains a favorite for Codeex subscription users, the API costs make it a poor candidate for heavy agentic workflows. As OpenAI winds down recent rate-limit promotions, developers may find their "weekly limits" vanishing much faster than they did in early May. Chinese models offer three-fold savings If cost is the primary constraint, Chinese models like Kim K 2.6 and Mimo are currently three to five times cheaper than Western frontier models. The trade-off remains quality; you will spend more time on manual fixes. However, for non-critical boilerplate or internal tools, the price-to-performance gap is narrowing rapidly. Composer 2.5 breaks the market The real standout is Composer 2.5. It manages to rival top-tier frontier models in quality while operating at a fraction of the cost. Its non-fast mode is particularly impressive, delivering high-level code without the premium price tag. This suggests that Cursor, powered by new compute deals, is successfully subsidizing high-end performance to capture the developer market. Investing in agentic workflows With model loyalty effectively dead, the best strategy isn't picking a winner, but building adaptable agentic workflows. The market is heavily subsidized and highly volatile. You should be prepared to swap your underlying model whenever a competitor launches a new promotion or a more efficient architecture. Focus on your prompting skills and tool integration rather than tying your stack to a single provider.