Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) 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 Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallba… scores 9.5 points higher (46.8 vs 37.3) but costs 3.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1027 vs $320; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallba… when you need intelligence above 37.3, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) when 37.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 46.8 | 37.3 | −20.3% GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is 20.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,027.40 | $319.93 | −68.9% GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is 68.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.86s | 114.06s | +576.5% GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is 576.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 20.3% less intelligence, 68.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 576.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)GPT-5.6 Luna (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-luna · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-luna?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill