GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) vs GPT-5 mini (High)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) by OpenAI or GPT-5 mini (High) 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 21.6 points higher (38.4 vs 16.8) but costs 28× as much to run the benchmark ($5294 vs $189; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) | GPT-5 mini (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 16.8 | −56.3% GPT-5 mini (High) is 56.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,294.36 | $188.66 | −96.4% GPT-5 mini (High) is 96.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 44.76s | 58.72s | +31.2% GPT-5 mini (High) is 31.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.25 / $2.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5 mini (High) vs GPT-5.5 (Xhigh): 56.3% less intelligence, 96.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 31.2% slower 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 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh)GPT-5 mini (High)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-mini · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5/gpt-5-mini?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill