Claude Opus 4.8 wins on coding (100 vs 85) and writing quality and context window (1M vs 200K). GPT-5.2 wins on price ($1.75 vs $5/1M input). For most workflows, Claude Opus 4.8 is the stronger default — best value premium coder — frontier-grade at half of fable 5's price.
The safest Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2 default, the cheaper option worth trying first, and the specialist pick — before you read the detail below.
Claude Opus 4.8 is the strongest answer here for Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2 — pick it when quality of output matters more than the $5.00/1M/1M input you pay for it.
GPT-5.2 handles the same job for about 48% less per token. Start here and only move up if the output is not good enough.
GPT-5.2 is the fastest of these for Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2 — worth it when latency is what the reader notices, not the last few points of reasoning depth.
Claude Opus 4.8 leads on coding with a score of 100 vs 85 for GPT-5.2.
Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window: 1M vs 200K for GPT-5.2.
GPT-5.2 is cheaper at $1.75/1M input tokens vs $5/1M for Claude Opus 4.8.
Claude Opus 4.8 is the safer default: it is built for hardest coding tasks, parallel agentic workflows, and high-fidelity vision, which covers most of what people bring to this comparison.
Choose GPT-5.2 when your work is mostly serious coding and complex product work — that is the workload it was tuned for.
GPT-5.2 is the more cost-efficient option at $1.75/1M input — Claude Opus 4.8 costs 3x more per input token, so the gap is worth taking seriously wherever token volume rather than peak quality drives the bill.
Switch the scoring lens to see whether the Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2 answer changes when cost, speed, or long-document depth leads the decision.
Anthropic / Premium / May 27, 2026
Best value premium coder — frontier-grade at half of Fable 5's price.
Ranks models by the broadest mix of coding, writing, research, and long-context usefulness.
You need the highest possible coding ceiling (Fable 5 / Mythos 5), low-latency responses, or a workflow locked to OpenAI tooling.
Where the Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2 recommendation shifts once you weigh price or latency differently.
Best value premium coder — frontier-grade at half of Fable 5's price.
Capable but outclassed — GPT-5.4 is now cheaper and better.
List prices and published scores — the numbers this page's pick is built from.
| Model | Input | Output | Est. month | Context | Speed | Coding | Writing | Research |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | $5.00/1M | $25.00/1M | $100 | 1M tokens | Deliberate | 100 | 96 | 98 |
| GPT-5.2OpenAI | $1.75/1M | $14.00/1M | $46 | 200k tokens | Balanced | 85 | 82 | 84 |
Scores out of 100 — how we evaluate models. “Est. month” is 10M in / 2M out at list price: a ceiling, no discounts.
Why each one is on the shortlist for Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2, what it is genuinely good at, and where we would steer you away from it.
Our pick for Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2. It scores 100/100 on the coding axis we weight this page by, and nothing else in this shortlist matches it on output quality.
Anthropic's newest Opus flagship — 69.2% SWE-Bench Pro, 88.6% SWE-Bench Verified, 1890 Arena Elo (121 pts ahead of GPT-5.5), and native parallel subagents. Same $5/$25 price as Opus 4.7.
You need the highest possible coding ceiling (Fable 5 / Mythos 5), low-latency responses, or a workflow locked to OpenAI tooling.
The best value at the premium tier now that Claude Fable 5 leads on raw capability. 69.2% SWE-Bench Pro, 1890 Elo, and built-in parallel subagents at $5/$25 — half the price of Fable 5. The smart default for serious coding when you don't need the absolute frontier.
Full pricing, benchmark table and release notes on the Claude Opus 4.8 page.
The value option for Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.2: about 48% less per token than Claude Opus 4.8, at 85/100 on coding. Worth starting here and moving up only if the output disappoints.
Reliable OpenAI flagship for serious coding and product work — a strong default before GPT-5.4 was released.
You're starting a new project — GPT-5.4 is cheaper and more capable.
Still capable but GPT-5.4 at $2.50/1M input is now cheaper and better. Hard to justify GPT-5.2 at $12/1M for new projects.
Full pricing, benchmark table and release notes on the GPT-5.2 page.
UseRightAI recommendations are based on practical decision factors people actually feel in day-to-day use.
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Claude Opus 4.8 wins on more of the categories we score — coding, research, long context — so it is the better default of the two. GPT-5.2 is the better pick when your work is mostly serious coding and complex product work. Neither is universally "better": Claude Opus 4.8 is aimed at hardest coding tasks and parallel agentic workflows, GPT-5.2 at serious coding and complex product work.
GPT-5.2 is cheaper at $1.75/1M input and $14/1M output. Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5/1M input and $25/1M output.
Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window at 1M tokens vs GPT-5.2's 200K. For large document analysis, Claude Opus 4.8 is the stronger pick.
Claude Opus 4.8 is better for coding with a score of 100 vs GPT-5.2's 85 (out of 100). GPT-6 Astra is the overall coding leader in this directory at 100/100.
GPT-5.2 is faster with a balanced speed rating (score: 3) vs Claude Opus 4.8's deliberate rating (score: 2). Speed matters most for interactive and high-throughput work; for batch jobs the Claude Opus 4.8 latency penalty is usually invisible.
Deliberate pace — not the right pick for latency-sensitive applications. Same price tier as Opus 4.7; not a budget option. Avoid it if you need the highest possible coding ceiling (Fable 5 / Mythos 5), low-latency responses, or a workflow locked to OpenAI tooling. That is the main case for looking at GPT-5.2 instead.
Superseded by GPT-5.4 for most use cases. Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads on both coding and writing quality. Avoid it if you're starting a new project — GPT-5.4 is cheaper and more capable. Against Claude Opus 4.8 specifically, the gap shows up most on coding (100 vs 85).
Take a moderate workload of 10M input and 2M output tokens a month. Claude Opus 4.8 runs $100.00 (at $5/1M in and $25/1M out); GPT-5.2 runs $45.50 (at $1.75/1M in and $14/1M out). That is a $54.50/month difference — GPT-5.2 is the cheaper of the two at this volume, and the gap scales linearly as you send more. Output tokens dominate the bill on both, so prompt length matters far less than response length.
Yes, and for most teams that beats picking one. A common split is Claude Opus 4.8 for hardest coding tasks and parallel agentic workflows, with GPT-5.2 handling serious coding and complex product work. Routing high-volume, low-stakes calls to GPT-5.2 at $1.75/1M and reserving Claude Opus 4.8 for the hard cases is usually the cheapest arrangement that does not cost you quality.