Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 4.2 points higher (56.0 vs 51.8) but costs 3.8× as much to run the benchmark ($4057 vs $1082; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 51.8, and GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) when 51.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 51.8 | −7.5% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 7.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $1,081.55 | −73.3% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 73.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 123.06s | 220.48s | +79.2% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 79.2% 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 7.5% less intelligence, 73.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 79.2% slower 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-6.1 Sol (Max) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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