Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) 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 9.7 points higher (38.2 vs 28.5) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $449; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 28.5, and GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) when 28.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 28.5 | −25.4% GPT-6 Sol (Non-reason… is 25.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $449.37 | −93.6% GPT-6 Sol (Non-reason… is 93.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 200.39s | 5.52s | −97.2% GPT-6 Sol (Non-reason… is 97.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 25.4% less intelligence, 93.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.2% 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 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning)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-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/gpt-6-sol-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill