Claude Sonnet 5 (High) vs GPT-6 Astra (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (High) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Astra (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
GPT-6 Astra (Medium) scores 17.9 points higher (49.6 vs 31.7) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2434 vs $2086; both flagship class). Pick GPT-6 Astra (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (High).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (High) | GPT-6 Astra (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 31.7 | 49.6 | +56.5% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 56.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,086.04 | $2,434.12 | +16.7% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 16.7% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.79s | 13.89s | −17.3% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 17.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Medium) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (High): 56.5% more intelligence, 16.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 17.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-6 Astra (Medium) 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 (High)GPT-6 Astra (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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