Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 20.1 points higher (56.0 vs 35.9) but costs 8.4× as much to run the benchmark ($4057 vs $482; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 35.9, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac… when 35.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 35.9 | −35.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Lo… is 35.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $482.13 | −88.1% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Lo… is 88.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 115.71s | 5.85s | −94.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Lo… is 94.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 35.9% less intelligence, 88.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 94.9% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) 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-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-5-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-5-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill