Claude Opus 5 (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) by OpenAI? 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 (Max) scores 6.8 points higher (50.8 vs 44.0) but costs 3.5× as much to run the benchmark ($7275 vs $2082; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 44.0, and GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) when 44.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Max) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.8 | 44.0 | −13.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is 13.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,274.74 | $2,082.28 | −71.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is 71.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 50.36s | 28.41s | −43.6% GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is 43.6% 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 (Xhigh) vs Claude Opus 5 (Max): 13.4% less intelligence, 71.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 43.6% 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.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Opus 5 (Max)GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh)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/gpt-5-6-sol-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5/gpt-5-6-sol-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill