Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) 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
GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 9.5 points higher (51.8 vs 42.3) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1082 vs $860; both premium class). Pick GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.3 | 51.8 | +22.5% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 22.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $860.33 | $1,081.55 | +25.7% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 25.7% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.52s | 250.29s | +2072.7% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 2072.7% 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 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 22.5% more intelligence, 25.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 2072.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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