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Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 5 scores higher than Claude Opus 4.8 on all 5 public leaderboards that rate both. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Claude Opus 5 is at 84.8 and Claude Opus 4.8 at 47.8 (out of 100).
Scores as published by each board; table composed September 24, 2026.
Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,692.4 | 1,555.2 | Claude Opus 5 |
| LiveBench global average (0-100) | 80.1 | 76.2 | Claude Opus 5 |
| SimpleBench AVG@5 % (private set) | 80.6 | 64.8 | Claude Opus 5 |
| Vals AI Vals Index accuracy % · weighted finance + coding tasks | 67.2 | 60.9 | Claude Opus 5 |
| Artificial Analysis intelligence index · measured runs only | 50.8 | 41.8 | Claude Opus 5 |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
Claude Opus 5 at a glance
- Developer
- Anthropic
- Status
- Live since July 24, 2026
Live — detected 16:51 UTC Jul 24, alert fired 61s later · superseded by Opus 5.5 on Sep 22 and moved to Anthropic's legacy list; still served at $5/$25, which is now MORE than its successor.
Claude Opus 5 is live — we detected it at 16:51 UTC and had alerts out 61 seconds later
2026-07-24 · Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 went live on the public API today. Our checkers saw the id appear at 16:51:33 UTC, confirmed it on the next 60-second sweep, and the alert blast went out at 16:52:34 — sixty-one seconds from first sighting to inbox.
Claude Opus 4.8 at a glance
- Developer
- Anthropic
- Status
- Live since May 27, 2026
Live.
Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8: quick answers
Which is better, Claude Opus 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?
It depends on what you measure. Claude Opus 5 scores higher than Claude Opus 4.8 on all 5 public leaderboards that rate both. Claude Opus 5's widest lead is on LMArena. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Claude Opus 5 is at 84.8 and Claude Opus 4.8 at 47.8 (out of 100).
Which is newer, Claude Opus 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?
Claude Opus 5. It went live on July 24, 2026, 58 days after Claude Opus 4.8 (May 27, 2026).
Who makes Claude Opus 5 and Claude Opus 4.8?
Both are from Anthropic.
Where do these numbers come from?
Each score is the leaderboard's own published figure, read by ArtificialWatch (table composed September 24, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
More comparisons
Watch free: Chrome push the moment a new model answers on a public API, an email about 15 minutes later. Also: the bench index · the wire