Claude Opus 5 (Low) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Low) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) 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 (Low) scores 4.8 points higher (39.4 vs 34.6) but costs 8.7× as much to run the benchmark ($1561 vs $179; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Low) when you need intelligence above 34.6, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) when 34.6 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Low) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.4 | 34.6 | −12.2% GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is 12.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,560.91 | $179.33 | −88.5% GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is 88.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.31s | 45.80s | +305.0% GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is 305.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) vs Claude Opus 5 (Low): 12.2% less intelligence, 88.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 305.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 41.30 for $175.
Claude Opus 5 (Low)GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-low/gpt-5-6-luna-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-low/gpt-5-6-luna-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill