Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Astra (Max) 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
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 1.5 points higher (52.7 vs 51.2) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $1627; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 51.2, and Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallba… when 51.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.2 | 52.7 | +2.9% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 2.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,626.81 | $5,324.10 | +227.3% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 3.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.80s | 280.51s | +1186.7% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 1186.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback): 2.9% more intelligence, 227.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1186.7% slower 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-6 Astra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback)GPT-6 Astra (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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