Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 4.0 points higher (57.6 vs 53.6) but costs 4.0× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $2172; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 53.6, and Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) when 53.6 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 53.6 | −6.9% Claude Opus 5.5 (High… is 6.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $2,172.43 | −75.1% Claude Opus 5.5 (High… is 75.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 33.81s | −94.6% Claude Opus 5.5 (High… is 94.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 6.9% less intelligence, 75.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 94.6% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/claude-opus-5-5-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/claude-opus-5-5-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill