Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Kimi K3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Kimi K3 (Max) by Kimi? 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 12.4 points higher (56.0 vs 43.6) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($4057 vs $3658; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Kimi K3 (Max).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Kimi K3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 43.6 | −22.1% Kimi K3 (Max) is 22.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $3,658.07 | −9.8% Kimi K3 (Max) is 9.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 127.76s | 53.89s | −57.8% Kimi K3 (Max) is 57.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 22.1% less intelligence, 9.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 57.8% 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.
- Kimi K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Kimi K3 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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