Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 14.8 points higher (56.0 vs 41.2) but costs 46× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $158; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… 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 Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.2 | 56.0 | +35.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 35.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $157.58 | $7,259.50 | +4506.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 46× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 69.98s | 465.48s | +565.2% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 565.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.50 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh): 35.9% more intelligence, 4506.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 565.2% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-haiku-5-5-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-haiku-5-5-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill