Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs GPT-5.5 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 (High) 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 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 19.0 points higher (56.0 vs 37.0) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $3411; both flagship class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (High).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | GPT-5.5 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 37.0 | −33.9% GPT-5.5 (High) is 33.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $3,410.76 | −53.0% GPT-5.5 (High) is 53.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 409.04s | 20.75s | −94.9% GPT-5.5 (High) is 94.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (High) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 33.9% less intelligence, 53.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 94.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
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.
- GPT-5.5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)GPT-5.5 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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