Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) 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 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 2.6 points higher (53.6 vs 51.0) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $662; 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 51.0, and GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) when 51.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 51.0 | −4.9% GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) is 4.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $662.28 | −69.5% GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) is 69.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 41.01s | 170.50s | +315.8% GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) is 315.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 4.9% less intelligence, 69.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 315.8% slower 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-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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