Jev vs Claude Sonnet 5: cost per decision
Sonnet is the mid-tier default in a lot of pipelines. On pure classification volume the gap is mostly output tokens, which Jev does not bill at all.
| Scenario | Jev 1.13 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
Light 10k items/day, 300-token state, 2 questions | $5.29 | $342.00 | 65x |
Production 100k items/day, 500-token state, 4 questions | $93.24 | $5,940 | 64x |
High volume 2M items/day, 300-token state, 1 question | $856.80 | $46,800 | 55x |
Monthly, 30 days. Both sides answer all questions for an item in a single call. Claude Sonnet 5 additionally pays for its output tokens at $10/M; Jev 1.13 has no output charge. List prices at standard tier, excluding caching and batch discounts.
Where Claude Sonnet 5 still wins
Sonnet is stronger on long, tangled reasoning where the judgement cannot be decomposed into independent typed questions.
The honest caveat
This compares price, not accuracy. A model that is 100x cheaper and wrong 5% more often can easily be the more expensive choice once you price the mistakes. Jev returns a calibrated probability with every answer, so the practical move is to route the confident cases automatically and send the rest to Claude Sonnet 5 or a human — which makes this a routing decision rather than a replacement decision.