Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) 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
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 3.6 points higher (38.2 vs 34.6) but costs 105× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $66.8; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 34.6, and GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) when 34.6 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 34.6 | −9.4% GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) is 9.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $66.81 | −99.0% GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) is 99.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 209.46s | 27.06s | −87.1% GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) is 87.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 9.4% less intelligence, 99.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 87.1% 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-6 Luna (Xhigh) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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