Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 11.3 points higher (53.6 vs 42.3) but costs 1.5× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $1487; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.6 Sol (High).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Sol (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 42.3 | −21.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 21.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $1,487.34 | −31.5% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 31.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.81s | 13.77s | −59.3% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 59.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (High) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 21.1% less intelligence, 31.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)GPT-5.6 Sol (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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