Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) 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-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) scores 19.7 points higher (44.0 vs 24.3) but costs 3.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2082 vs $653; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 24.3, and Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) when 24.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.3 | 44.0 | +81.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is 81.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $652.70 | $2,082.28 | +219.0% GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is 3.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.73s | 47.67s | +446.0% GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is 446.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Low): 81.1% more intelligence, 219.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 446.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Low)GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-low/gpt-5-6-sol-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-low/gpt-5-6-sol-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill