Claude Opus 5 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) 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 6.8 points higher (57.6 vs 50.8) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $7275; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Opus 5 (Max).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Max) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.8 | 57.6 | +13.4% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 13.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,274.74 | $8,708.20 | +19.7% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 19.7% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 50.36s | 626.13s | +1143.3% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 1143.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5 (Max): 13.4% more intelligence, 19.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1143.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Opus 5 (Max)Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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