Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) vs GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Astra (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (Max) scores 18.3 points higher (52.7 vs 34.4) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $3255; both flagship class). Pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.4 | 52.7 | +53.2% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 53.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,255.40 | $5,324.10 | +63.5% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 63.5% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 28.41s | 294.32s | +936.0% GPT-6 Astra (Max) is 936.0% 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 (Xhigh): 53.2% more intelligence, 63.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 936.0% 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-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 (Xhigh)GPT-6 Astra (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-6-astra · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-xhigh/gpt-6-astra?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill