Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 (Medium) 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… scores 18.1 points higher (51.9 vs 33.8) but costs 1.0× as much to run the benchmark ($2177 vs $2095; both flagship class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (Medium).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.9 | 33.8 | −34.9% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 34.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,176.82 | $2,095.12 | −3.8% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 3.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.02s | 11.50s | −65.2% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 65.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 34.9% less intelligence, 3.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 65.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
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.
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)GPT-5.5 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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