GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) by OpenAI or GPT-5.5 (Medium) 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
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) scores 4.6 points higher (38.4 vs 33.8) but costs 2.5× as much to run the benchmark ($5294 vs $2095; both flagship class). Pick GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 (Medium).
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 33.8 | −12.0% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 12.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,294.36 | $2,095.12 | −60.4% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 60.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.87s | 12.63s | −77.4% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 77.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs GPT-5.5 (Xhigh): 12.0% less intelligence, 60.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) 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 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh)GPT-5.5 (Medium)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/gpt-5-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5/gpt-5-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill