Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Muse Ember (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Muse Ember (Xhigh) by Meta? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-10.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 23.3 points higher (57.4 vs 34.1) but costs 50× as much to run the benchmark ($4766 vs $95.7; 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 34.1, and Muse Ember (Xhigh) when 34.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Muse Ember (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.4 | 34.1 | −40.6% Muse Ember (Xhigh) is 40.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,765.91 | $95.73 | −98.0% Muse Ember (Xhigh) is 98.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 165.41s | 9.48s | −94.3% Muse Ember (Xhigh) is 94.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Muse Ember (Xhigh) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 40.6% less intelligence, 98.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 94.3% 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.
- Muse Ember (Xhigh) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Muse Ember (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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