Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (High) scores 14.2 points higher (42.3 vs 28.1) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1487 vs $1218; both premium class). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) | GPT-5.6 Sol (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 28.1 | 42.3 | +50.5% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 50.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,218.17 | $1,487.34 | +22.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 22.1% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.27s | 13.86s | +49.5% GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is 49.5% 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 (High) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium): 50.5% more intelligence, 22.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 49.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium)GPT-5.6 Sol (High)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-medium/gpt-5-6-sol-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-medium/gpt-5-6-sol-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill