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AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-5.5

Anthropic against OpenAI, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Anthropic

Claude Opus 5.5

Frontier

vs

OpenAI

GPT-5.5

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationClaude Opus 5.5GPT-5.5
ProviderAnthropicOpenAI
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1MWinner: 1.05M
Max output128K128K
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $4$5
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $20$30
WeightsClosedClosed
ParametersNot disclosedUnverifiedNot disclosedUnverified
Reasoning levelsadaptivenone, low, medium, high, xhigh
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image
API model idclaude-opus-5-5gpt-5.5
ReleasedSeptember 22, 2026April 23, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] (2026-09-26)57.6Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified38.4
Humanity's Last Exam [max] (2026-09-26)61.4Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-04-23)Not verifiedUnverified52.2
Terminal-Bench 4.0 [max] (2026-09-26)59.6Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 4.0 [xhigh] (2026-09-22)66.4Not verifiedUnverified
SWE-bench Verified (2026-09-01)Not verifiedUnverified82.6
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-07-27)Not verifiedUnverified83.4
GPQA Diamond (2026-07-27)Not verifiedUnverified93.5

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

Claude Opus 5.5: $4/$20 per MTok, no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.20; 5-minute cache writes $5, 1-hour writes $8. Batch $2/$10; Fast mode $8/$40. Batches API allows 300K output with the output-300k-2026-03-24 beta header. Knowledge cutoff Jun 2026; retirement not before 2027-09-22.

GPT-5.5: Standard $5/$30 per MTok; >272K input billed 2x in / 1.5x out. Cached input $0.50/MTok; batch $2.50/$15.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

Claude Opus 5.5

Claude Opus 5.5 is Anthropic's default model for agentic coding and knowledge work — Anthropic says it performs near Fable 5.1 on most work at about 40% lower running cost than Opus 5, and it leads the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3.2.

Best for

  • Complex agentic coding
  • Enterprise knowledge work
  • Default frontier model

Watch out

Breaking changes from Opus 5: adaptive thinking cannot be disabled (effort runs low to max, default medium) and forced tool use returns an error. Verbose at max effort, so cap output on cost-sensitive routes.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

GPT-5.5

GPT-5.5 is OpenAI's April 2026 flagship, now two generations back — strong on Terminal-Bench 2.0 (82.7%) with a 1.05M-token context.

Best for

  • Reasoning
  • Agentic coding
  • Long-context work

Watch out

Superseded by GPT-5.6 and then GPT-6 Astra/Sol; still served and widely integrated.

When the cheaper one wins

Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper on output at $20 per million tokens against $30 for GPT-5.5 — about 1.5×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
  • 2 shared named benchmarks with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Humanity's Last Exam.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Claude Opus 5.5 · GPT-5.5

Common questions

Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-5.5

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-5.5 cheaper for input?
Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper at $4 per million input tokens, against $5 for GPT-5.5 — roughly 1.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Claude Opus 5.5 has tiered pricing: $4/$20 per MTok, no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.20; 5-minute cache writes $5, 1-hour writes $8. Batch $2/$10; Fast mode $8/$40. Batches API allows 300K output with the output-300k-2026-03-24 beta header. Knowledge cutoff Jun 2026; retirement not before 2027-09-22. GPT-5.5 has tiered pricing: Standard $5/$30 per MTok; >272K input billed 2x in / 1.5x out. Cached input $0.50/MTok; batch $2.50/$15.
Is Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-5.5 cheaper for output?
Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper at $20 per million output tokens, against $30 for GPT-5.5 — roughly 1.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Claude Opus 5.5 has tiered pricing: $4/$20 per MTok, no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.20; 5-minute cache writes $5, 1-hour writes $8. Batch $2/$10; Fast mode $8/$40. Batches API allows 300K output with the output-300k-2026-03-24 beta header. Knowledge cutoff Jun 2026; retirement not before 2027-09-22. GPT-5.5 has tiered pricing: Standard $5/$30 per MTok; >272K input billed 2x in / 1.5x out. Cached input $0.50/MTok; batch $2.50/$15.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-5.5?
GPT-5.5 accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for Claude Opus 5.5. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-5.5 support the same reasoning levels?
Claude Opus 5.5 exposes adaptive, while GPT-5.5 exposes none, low, medium, high, xhigh.
Should I use Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-5.5?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Claude Opus 5.5 suits complex agentic coding; GPT-5.5 suits reasoning.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 per 1M tokens versus $5 for GPT-5.5 — a 1.3x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: GPT-5.5 takes 1.05M against 1M for Claude Opus 5.5 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Claude Opus 5.5 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 57.6 to 38.4 (measured 2026-09-26).
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