Claude Opus 5 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? 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 (Max) scores 8.5 points higher (50.8 vs 42.3) but costs 8.5× as much to run the benchmark ($7275 vs $860; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 42.3, and Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) when 42.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Max) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.8 | 42.3 | −16.7% Claude Opus 5.5 (Low,… is 16.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,274.74 | $860.33 | −88.2% Claude Opus 5.5 (Low,… is 88.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 63.35s | 11.16s | −82.4% Claude Opus 5.5 (Low,… is 82.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5 (Max): 16.7% less intelligence, 88.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 82.4% faster 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 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Claude Opus 5 (Max)Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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