Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) by OpenAI? 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 4.8 (Max) scores 14.3 points higher (41.8 vs 27.5) but costs 20× as much to run the benchmark ($6874 vs $350; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) when you need intelligence above 27.5, and GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) when 27.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) | GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.8 | 27.5 | −34.2% GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is 34.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,873.86 | $350.36 | −94.9% GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is 94.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 48.55s | 5.92s | −87.8% GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is 87.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) vs Claude Opus 4.8 (Max): 34.2% less intelligence, 94.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 87.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Opus 4.8 (Max)GPT-5.6 Terra (Low)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-4-8/gpt-5-6-terra-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-4-8/gpt-5-6-terra-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill