Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallba… scores 8.9 points higher (51.2 vs 42.3) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($1627 vs $1487; both premium class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallba… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.6 Sol (High).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Sol (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.2 | 42.3 | −17.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 17.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,626.81 | $1,487.34 | −8.6% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 8.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.80s | 13.86s | −36.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 36.4% 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 (Medium, Default Fallback): 17.4% less intelligence, 8.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 36.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- 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 (Medium, Default Fallback)GPT-5.6 Sol (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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