Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… scores 27.6 points higher (51.9 vs 24.3) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($2177 vs $653; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when you need intelligence above 24.3, and Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) when 24.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.9 | 24.3 | −53.2% Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is 53.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,176.82 | $652.70 | −70.0% Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is 70.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.27s | 8.73s | −73.8% Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is 73.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 53.2% less intelligence, 70.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 73.8% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill