Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) 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
GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 15.9 points higher (51.8 vs 35.9) but costs 2.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1082 vs $482; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac….
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 35.9 | 51.8 | +44.3% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 44.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $482.13 | $1,081.55 | +124.3% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 2.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.19s | 220.48s | +3461.9% GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is 3461.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 44.3% more intelligence, 124.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 3461.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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