Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs GPT-5.5 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 (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
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 1.2 points higher (38.2 vs 37.0) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $3411; both flagship class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (High).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | GPT-5.5 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 37.0 | −3.1% GPT-5.5 (High) is 3.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $3,410.76 | −51.3% GPT-5.5 (High) is 51.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 190.29s | 19.56s | −89.7% GPT-5.5 (High) is 89.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (High) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 3.1% less intelligence, 51.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 89.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- GPT-5.5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)GPT-5.5 (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/gpt-5-5-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/gpt-5-5-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill