Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 (Medium) 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
Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) scores 0.6 points higher (34.4 vs 33.8) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($3255 vs $2095; both flagship class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (Medium).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.4 | 33.8 | −1.7% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 1.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,255.40 | $2,095.12 | −35.6% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 35.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 26.92s | 11.50s | −57.3% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 57.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh): 1.7% less intelligence, 35.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 57.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh)GPT-5.5 (Medium)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-xhigh/gpt-5-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-xhigh/gpt-5-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill