Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs GPT-6 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Sol (Max) by OpenAI? 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
GPT-6 Sol (Max) scores 6.8 points higher (47.6 vs 40.8) but costs 2.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1536 vs $622; both premium class). Pick GPT-6 Sol (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fall….
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) | GPT-6 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.8 | 47.6 | +16.7% GPT-6 Sol (Max) is 16.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $622.28 | $1,535.80 | +146.8% GPT-6 Sol (Max) is 2.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.98s | 105.71s | +1667.7% GPT-6 Sol (Max) is 1667.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Sol (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback): 16.7% more intelligence, 146.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1667.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- GPT-6 Sol (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback)GPT-6 Sol (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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