Sonnet 5.5 produces a 30s all-code video for ~$35, vs $50 on Opus 5.5

oxmannnn · reddit · 2026-09-29

A Redditor used Sonnet 5.5 to generate a 30s 1080p60 animation — kinetic type, r/place timelapse, chart races, synthesized soundtrack — entirely in code (headless Chrome + ffmpeg, no video model). API-equivalent cost: $4.94 (15s cut) + $30.46 (30s cut, 14 sub-agents) = $35.40; the same tokens on Opus 5.5 would cost $50.48. The gap is only 43% because cache reads ($0.20/M) dominate and cost the same on both. 779 tool calls over 2.4 hours.

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