Claude Opus 5 (Low) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Low) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Low) scores 0.2 points higher (39.4 vs 39.2) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1561 vs $997; both premium class). Pick Claude Opus 5 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Low) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.4 | 39.2 | −0.5% GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is 0.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,560.91 | $997.39 | −36.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is 36.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.45s | 10.52s | −8.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is 8.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) vs Claude Opus 5 (Low): 0.5% less intelligence, 36.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 8.1% faster 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 Sol (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Claude Opus 5 (Low)GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium)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-low/gpt-5-6-sol-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-low/gpt-5-6-sol-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill