GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) vs GPT-5 mini (High)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) 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-5.6 Sol (Low) scores 16.7 points higher (33.5 vs 16.8) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($637 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) | GPT-5 mini (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.5 | 16.8 | −49.9% GPT-5 mini (High) is 49.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $637.28 | $188.66 | −70.4% GPT-5 mini (High) is 70.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.26s | 60.90s | +637.3% GPT-5 mini (High) is 637.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.25 / $2.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5 mini (High) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Low): 49.9% less intelligence, 70.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 637.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- 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-5.6 Sol (Low)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-5-6-sol-low/gpt-5-mini · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-sol-low/gpt-5-mini?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill