Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs GPT-6 Sol (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Sol (Low) 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 4.0 points higher (38.2 vs 34.2) but costs 26× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $269; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 34.2, and GPT-6 Sol (Low) when 34.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | GPT-6 Sol (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 34.2 | −10.5% GPT-6 Sol (Low) is 10.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $268.73 | −96.2% GPT-6 Sol (Low) is 96.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 190.29s | 6.10s | −96.8% GPT-6 Sol (Low) is 96.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Sol (Low) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 10.5% less intelligence, 96.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.8% 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 Sol (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)GPT-6 Sol (Low)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/gpt-6-sol-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/gpt-6-sol-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill