Claude Sonnet 5 and what to use instead
For customer support replies, Claude Sonnet 5 scores 56 and costs $7.00 per 1,000 replies. Here’s what beats it on price, on quality, or on privacy.
Cheaper at similar quality
At least 30% cheaper and within 5 points.
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai · open weightsAbout 94% cheaper per reply, and 11 points stronger.$0.43 per 1,000 replies · score 67Compare side by side →
Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle · open weightsAbout 93% cheaper per reply, and 5 points weaker.$0.46 per 1,000 replies · score 51Compare side by side →
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogleAbout 62% cheaper per reply, and 22 points stronger.$2.63 per 1,000 replies · score 78Compare side by side →
Better at a similar price
At least 5 points stronger and no more than 20% dearer.
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogleSame price per reply, and 41 points stronger.$7.00 per 1,000 replies · score 97Compare side by side →
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogleAbout 62% cheaper per reply, and 22 points stronger.$2.63 per 1,000 replies · score 78Compare side by side →
Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)About 23% cheaper per reply, and 16 points stronger.$5.40 per 1,000 replies · score 72Compare side by side →
Open weights you can host
Ranked by value: quality for the money.
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai · open weightsAbout 94% cheaper per reply, and 11 points stronger.$0.43 per 1,000 replies · score 67Compare side by side →
Kimi K3Moonshot AI · open weightsAbout 50% dearer per reply, and 17 points stronger.$10.50 per 1,000 replies · score 73Compare side by side →
GLM-5.3Z.ai · open weightsAbout 45% cheaper per reply, and 11 points stronger.$3.86 per 1,000 replies · score 67Compare side by side →
Scores are provisional (Arena and Epoch AI) and prices are list prices. Rankings never take money into account. Thresholds are in the methodology.