GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI or GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) scores 13.2 points higher (47.0 vs 33.8) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($3465 vs $2095; both flagship class). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (Medium).
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 47.0 | +39.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 39.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,095.12 | $3,464.84 | +65.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 65.4% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.73s | 91.96s | +845.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 845.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium): 39.1% more intelligence, 65.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 845.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
GPT-5.5 (Medium)GPT-5.6 Sol (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/gpt-5-5-medium/gpt-5-6-sol · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/gpt-5-6-sol?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill