Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic? 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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 23.2 points higher (57.6 vs 34.4) but costs 2.7× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $3255; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 34.4 | −40.3% Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhig… is 40.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $3,255.40 | −62.6% Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhig… is 62.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 20.97s | −96.7% Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhig… is 96.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 40.3% less intelligence, 62.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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