Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 27.9 points higher (56.0 vs 28.1) but costs 6.0× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1218; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 28.1, and Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) when 28.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 28.1 | −49.8% Claude Sonnet 5 (Medi… is 49.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,218.17 | −83.2% Claude Sonnet 5 (Medi… is 83.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 367.63s | 9.01s | −97.5% Claude Sonnet 5 (Medi… is 97.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 49.8% less intelligence, 83.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.5% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/claude-sonnet-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/claude-sonnet-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill