ModelRefs / Claude 3 Opus vs GPT-5 Mini

Claude 3 Opus vs GPT-5 Mini

Claude 3 Opus vs GPT-5 Mini: side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, context windows, coding ability and deployment. Pick the right model for your stack.

Overview

Claude 3 Opus: Claude 3 Opus is Anthropic's February 2024 frontier model and the most capable of the original Claude 3 family, accepting text and image input across a 200,000-token context window. The claude-3-opus-20240229 snapshot was deprecated on 30 June 2025 and retired on Anthropic-operated platforms on 5 January 2026, with Claude Opus 4.8 named as its replacement.

GPT-5 Mini: GPT-5 Mini is OpenAI's August 2025 cost-efficient reasoning model for well-defined, latency-sensitive, and high-volume workloads. The API model supports text input and output, image input, configurable reasoning effort, and an immutable gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 snapshot; OpenAI now classifies it as a previous-generation model.

Context window: Claude 3 Opus accepts up to 200,000 tokens, GPT-5 Mini up to 400,000. Confirm the limit for your specific deployment channel before relying on it.

Claude 3 Opus vs GPT-5 Mini at a glance

AttributeClaude 3 OpusGPT-5 Mini
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
Released2024-02-292025-08-07
Context window200,000 tokens400,000 tokens
Input price$15/M tokens$0.25/M tokens
Output price$75/M tokens$2/M tokens
LicenceProprietaryProprietary
Self-hostableNo, hosted onlyNo, hosted only
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision

Benchmarks reported for both

BenchmarkClaude 3 OpusGPT-5 MiniReported
GPQA Diamond (accuracy)50.482.32024-03-04 / 2025-08-07

Each row compares the same benchmark, the same reported metric, and the same task set. Scores are as published by their cited sources on the dates shown. Different runs still use different harnesses and prompts, so treat these as directional evidence rather than a head-to-head result.

Where they differ most

  • Reasoning: Claude 3 Opus 38%, GPT-5 Mini 88%. GPT-5 Mini leads on this dimension.

Capability scores are ModelRefs' own derived signals, not vendor claims or benchmark results. Validate against your own workload before relying on them.

Continue your research

Use these connected ModelRefs sections to compare alternatives, inspect implementation paths, and review the evidence and governance boundaries relevant to Claude 3 Opus vs GPT-5 Mini.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, Claude 3 Opus or GPT-5 Mini?

Claude 3 Opus and GPT-5 Mini target different workloads — see the benchmark and pricing tables for a side-by-side answer.

Is Claude 3 Opus cheaper than GPT-5 Mini?

Compare $0.0150 vs $0.00025 on this page.