Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Terra (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 23.4 points higher (57.6 vs 34.2) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $768; 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 34.2, and GPT-5.6 Terra (High) when 34.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Terra (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 34.2 | −40.6% GPT-5.6 Terra (High) is 40.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $767.78 | −91.2% GPT-5.6 Terra (High) is 91.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 711.14s | 6.58s | −99.1% GPT-5.6 Terra (High) is 99.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (High) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 40.6% less intelligence, 91.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 99.1% 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.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)GPT-5.6 Terra (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gpt-5-6-terra-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/gpt-5-6-terra-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill