Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Astra (Max) 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-6 Astra (Max) scores 24.6 points higher (52.7 vs 28.1) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $1218; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 28.1, and Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) when 28.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 28.1 | 52.7 | +87.5% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 87.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,218.17 | $5,324.10 | +337.1% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.27s | 285.78s | +2982.8% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 2982.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium): 87.5% more intelligence, 337.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 2982.8% 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-6 Astra (Max) 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)GPT-6 Astra (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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