Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) 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 20.1 points higher (53.6 vs 33.5) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $637; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 33.5, and GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) when 33.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 33.5 | −37.5% GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is 37.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $637.28 | −70.7% GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is 70.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.81s | 8.17s | −75.8% GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is 75.8% 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 (Low) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 37.5% less intelligence, 70.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 75.8% 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 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)GPT-5.6 Sol (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-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-sol-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-sol-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill