Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) vs Claude Opus 5 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5 (High) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (High) scores 6.9 points higher (48.1 vs 41.2) but costs 27× as much to run the benchmark ($4332 vs $158; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (High) when you need intelligence above 41.2, and Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) when 41.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) | Claude Opus 5 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.2 | 48.1 | +16.7% Claude Opus 5 (High) is 16.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $157.58 | $4,331.68 | +2648.9% Claude Opus 5 (High) is 27× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 69.76s | 28.15s | −59.6% Claude Opus 5 (High) is 59.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.50 | $5.00 / $25.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5 (High) vs Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh): 16.7% more intelligence, 2648.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Opus 5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh)Claude Opus 5 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-haiku-5-5-xhigh/claude-opus-5-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-haiku-5-5-xhigh/claude-opus-5-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill