Cheaper alternatives to Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 4.8 scores 1453 on the overall Arena and costs about $2,000.00/month at 100,000 calls (1,500 in / 500 out). Here are models that match or beat it on quality for less.
| GLM-5.3-Flash | 1472 | $23.75 | $1,976.25/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| MiMo-V2.5-Pro | 1465 | $108.75 | $1,891.25/mo | Xiaomi |
| Qwen3.7 Plus | 1454 | $225.00 | $1,775.00/mo | Alibaba |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | 1476 | $300.00 | $1,700.00/mo | |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | 1490 | $300.00 | $1,700.00/mo | |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | 1495 | $300.00 | $1,700.00/mo | |
| Kimi K2.6 | 1455 | $342.50 | $1,657.50/mo | Moonshot AI |
| Muse Spark 1.1 | 1480 | $400.00 | $1,600.00/mo | Meta |
| Muse Spark 1.2 | 1489 | $400.00 | $1,600.00/mo | Meta |
| GLM-5.2 | 1463 | $430.00 | $1,570.00/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| GLM-5.1 | 1462 | $430.00 | $1,570.00/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| Qwen3.8 Max | 1481 | $600.00 | $1,400.00/mo | Alibaba |
Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 18 September 2026. Scores are a relative signal, not an absolute measure of capability. A Measured score was voted on directly; an Estimated score is inherited from an identical base model (a regional/creator-prefixed hosting duplicate). See our methodology.
FAQ
Is there a cheaper model as good as Claude Opus 4.8?
Yes. GLM-5.3-Flash matches or beats Claude Opus 4.8 on the overall Arena leaderboard and costs about $23.75/month versus $2,000.00/month at a typical volume of 100,000 calls — saving roughly $1,976.25/month.
How is 'as good' defined?
We only list models with an overall Arena score at or above Claude Opus 4.8's (1453). Arena scores are community preference ratings, not a single benchmark — confirm the alternative on your own task before switching.
Cite / link to this page
You’re welcome to reference this page and its figures with attribution and a link back.
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