Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) scores 12.6 points higher (47.0 vs 34.4) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($3465 vs $3255; both flagship class). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.4 | 47.0 | +36.6% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 36.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,255.40 | $3,464.84 | +6.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 6.4% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.97s | 91.96s | +338.5% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 338.5% 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 (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh): 36.6% more intelligence, 6.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 338.5% slower 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-5.6 Sol (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh)GPT-5.6 Sol (Max)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-5-6-sol · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-xhigh/gpt-5-6-sol?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill