Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 5.7 points higher (57.6 vs 51.9) but costs 4.0× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $2177; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 51.9, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when 51.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 51.9 | −9.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xh… is 9.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $2,176.82 | −75.0% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xh… is 75.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 32.10s | −94.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xh… is 94.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 9.9% less intelligence, 75.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 94.9% 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 Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill