Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) 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 19.3 points higher (46.8 vs 27.5) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($1027 vs $350; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallba… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.6 Terra (Low).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 46.8 | 27.5 | −41.2% GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is 41.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,027.40 | $350.36 | −65.9% GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is 65.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.86s | 5.91s | −64.9% GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is 64.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 41.2% less intelligence, 65.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 64.9% faster 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 Terra (Low) 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 Terra (Low)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-sonnet-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-terra-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-high/gpt-5-6-terra-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill