Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 23.5 points higher (53.6 vs 30.1) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $447; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 30.1, and GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) when 30.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 30.1 | −43.8% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 43.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $446.53 | −79.4% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 79.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 41.01s | 5.99s | −85.4% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 85.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 43.8% less intelligence, 79.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 85.4% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-terra-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-terra-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill