Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 22.2 points higher (56.0 vs 33.8) but costs 1.9× as much to run the benchmark ($4057 vs $2095; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (Medium).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 33.8 | −39.6% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 39.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $2,095.12 | −48.4% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 48.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 123.06s | 9.73s | −92.1% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 92.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 39.6% less intelligence, 48.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)GPT-5.5 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh/gpt-5-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh/gpt-5-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill