Cheaper alternatives to Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1440 on the overall Arena and costs about $800.00/month at 100,000 calls (1,500 in / 500 out). Here are models that match or beat it on quality for less.
| Hunyuan Hy3 | 1444 | $70.00 | $730.00/mo | Tencent |
| MiMo-V2.5-Pro | 1445 | $108.75 | $691.25/mo | Xiaomi |
| GLM-4.6 | 1448 | $200.00 | $600.00/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| GLM-5.2 | 1463 | $430.00 | $370.00/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| Grok 4.5 | 1451 | $600.00 | $200.00/mo | xAI |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | 1463 | $687.50 | $112.50/mo | |
| Qwen3.7 Max | 1444 | $750.00 | $50.00/mo | Alibaba |
Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 28 July 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 Sonnet 5?
Yes. Hunyuan Hy3 matches or beats Claude Sonnet 5 on the overall Arena leaderboard and costs about $70.00/month versus $800.00/month at a typical volume of 100,000 calls — saving roughly $730.00/month.
How is 'as good' defined?
We only list models with an overall Arena score at or above Claude Sonnet 5's (1440). 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.
https://aicalculatorpro.com/alternatives/claude-sonnet-5/<a href="https://aicalculatorpro.com/alternatives/claude-sonnet-5/">Cheaper alternatives to Claude Sonnet 5 — AI Calculator Pro</a>