GPT-5 Launch Highlights

OpenAI has officially launched GPT-5 today, and it's packed with some impressive capabilities and competitive pricing that could shake up the AI landscape, especially for developers.

Key Features

Context Window: GPT-5 boasts a massive 400K token context window, though generation is capped at 128K tokens max. This is a significant improvement that allows for processing much larger codebases and documents in a single session.

Pricing Structure

OpenAI is offering two tiers for GPT-5 (per 1M tokens):

  • Standard: $1.25 input / $10 output
  • Priority: $2.50 input / $20 output (≈2× price for guaranteed speed)

The Priority tier is particularly interesting as it promises guaranteed speed for those willing to pay double.

How Does It Compare to Anthropic?

For context, here's how GPT-5 stacks up against Anthropic's current pricing (per 1M tokens):

  • Claude Sonnet 4: $3 input / $15 output
  • Claude Opus 4.1: $15 input / $75 output

At first glance, GPT-5's pricing is significantly more competitive than both Claude offerings, especially if you're doing heavy coding work where the cost differential really adds up.

Major Model Deprecation Coming

Perhaps the biggest shock from today's announcement: OpenAI will deprecate all legacy models. While this will create a simpler menu of options, it means developers will need to migrate their applications from older models. This could be a significant undertaking for teams heavily invested in the older model ecosystem.

The Coding Claims

OpenAI is boldly claiming that GPT-5 is the "best coding model today." If this holds true, the combination of superior coding capabilities and more competitive pricing could make it an attractive alternative to Claude Sonnet or Opus for development workflows.

The Bottom Line

We'll have to see if GPT-5 lives up to its coding claims through real-world testing. But on paper, the combination of:

  • Large context window (400K tokens)
  • Competitive pricing
  • Claimed coding superiority

...makes this a compelling option for developers. If it truly delivers better coding performance than Sonnet or Opus at a lower cost, it could represent a significant shift in the AI coding landscape.

The forced migration from legacy models will be a short-term pain point, but for teams looking to optimize their AI spending while potentially getting better results, GPT-5 might just be worth the migration effort.