What's new in Claude Sonnet 5
Claude Sonnet 5 brings Opus-level performance at Sonnet prices, but a tokenizer change effectively raises costs by 30% for English users; removed sampling params and default thinking mode add more hidden costs.
Simon Willison · Jul 1, 2026
Claude Token Counter, now with model comparisons
Simon Willison's tool reveals that Claude Opus 4.7's new tokenizer inflates token counts by ~46% for text and up to 3x for images compared to its predecessor, leading to higher real-world costs despite unchanged official pricing.
Simon Willison · Apr 20, 2026