Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 31.6 points higher (57.6 vs 26.0) but costs 8.8× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $987; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 26.0, and GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) when 26.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 26.0 | −54.9% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 54.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $986.85 | −88.7% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 88.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 717.41s | 16.20s | −97.7% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 97.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 54.9% less intelligence, 88.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.7% 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.
- GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill