Claude Opus 5
claude-opus-5
70% in · 30% out mix
Higher = better value
Speed
63/100
Context
1.0M
Tier
power
GPT-5.6 Sol
gpt-5-6-sol
70% in · 30% out mix
Higher = better value
Speed
70/100
Context
1.1M
Tier
power
IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS
Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol: Detailed Comparison
Claude Opus 5 is Anthropic's flagship-tier language model with a 1.0M-token context window, excelling at coding. GPT-5.6 Sol from OpenAI is a flagship-tier model supporting 1.1M tokens in context, with standout performance in reasoning.
Price is not the deciding factor here. Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol land within 12% of each other on a typical prompt/completion mix, which is inside the margin your own input/output ratio will move anyway. Pick on capability, context, or latency instead — the monthly bill will look much the same either way. Claude Opus 5 is priced at $5.00/M input tokens and $25.00/M output tokens. GPT-5.6 Sol costs $5.00/M input and $30.00/M output.
In independent benchmark evaluations, Claude Opus 5 leads with coding scores of 99/100 and reasoning scores of 98/100, compared to GPT-5.6 Sol's 97/100 in coding and 99/100 in reasoning.
Capability breakdown
Across the five core benchmark categories, here is how Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol stack up head to head:
Best model by task
- coding: Claude Opus 5 wins with 99/100
- reasoning: GPT-5.6 Sol wins with 99/100
- data extraction: Claude Opus 5 wins with 96/100
- vision/multimodal: GPT-5.6 Sol wins with 96/100
Estimated monthly cost at scale
At 10M + 2M per month, Claude Opus 5 runs about $100.00 while GPT-5.6 Sol runs about $110.00 — Claude Opus 5 saves roughly $10.00 (9%) every month.
What actually decides it
Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol come from different labs, which means different tokenizers, different API shapes, and a second vendor relationship. The same English text does not produce the same token count on both, so a price-per-million comparison understates the difference — measure your own prompts on each before treating the headline rates as the full story.
Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol were released within 0 months of each other, so they are competing on the same evaluations under roughly the same conditions. That makes a direct benchmark comparison meaningful here in a way it usually is not — neither model has the advantage of being measured on a newer, easier set of tests.
Context is effectively a tie: 1.1M against 1.0M. Neither model unlocks a document size the other cannot handle, so this axis should not enter the decision. If you were hoping context would break the tie for you, it will not.
Throughput is close enough to ignore — 70/100 versus 63/100. Neither model will feel noticeably quicker in an interactive product, so latency is not a reason to choose between them.
With prices this close (12% apart), pick on fit rather than cost. Claude Opus 5 holds the benchmark edge; weigh that against where each one is weakest — vision processing and data extraction respectively — and use the calculator above with your own token mix.
Benchmark Comparison
Head-to-head scores across 5 categories — sourced from official evals
Coding
Reasoning
Extraction
Creative
Vision
Speed Score
Context Window
What Is a Token?
Models don't read words — they process tokens.
A token is roughly 4 characters of English text (~¾ of a word). Your API bill is priced per million tokens — understanding this directly reduces your costs.
Short phrase
"Hello, world!"
- Claude Opus 5
- $2.20
- GPT-5.6 Sol
- $2.00
Business email
One typical email (~200 words)
- Claude Opus 5
- $148.50
- GPT-5.6 Sol
- $135.00
Code file
50-line Python script
- Claude Opus 5
- $220.00
- GPT-5.6 Sol
- $200.00
Prices shown are for 100,000 runs of each workload — one run costs a fraction of a cent on both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, so the number only becomes meaningful at production volume. Input tokens only; add your output volume in the calculator below.
How to check your token usage
response.usage.total_tokensEvery API response includes a usage object. Sum total_tokens across all calls to get your monthly figure, then use the calculator below.
Your Cost Calculator
Enter your actual monthly token usage to see real savings
Quick Presets
Claude Opus 5
$330.00/mo
$3,960.00/yr
GPT-5.6 Sol
$375.00/mo
$4,500.00/yr
Annual Savings
$540.00 saved per year
Claude Opus 5 cheaper · $45.00/mo
Deep-Dive Audit — Claude Opus 5 & GPT-5.6 Sol
Surgically Auditing: Deep Logic
3-YEAR STRATEGIC LOSS PROJECTION
$991.404
Without optimization protocols, current model choices will result in $330.468 capital loss per year.
EFFICIENCY SCORE
98%
This model achieves a 98 benchmark score in this category.
CATEGORY GAP
2 pts
Distance from Leader
Competitive Landscape Analysis
Source: MMLU-Pro + GPQA Diamond (Apr 2026)
Category Champion: Claude Fable 5
According to MMLU-Pro + GPQA Diamond (Apr 2026) data, Claude Fable 5 provides the optimum balance for Deep Logic tasks.
Market Score
%100
Savings Rate
%92
Operational Prescription
- Implement model cascading to optimize token spend.
- Analyze complex_reasoning data to leverage local semantic caching.
COST AUDIT PROTOCOL
Overkill Detected
"Claude Opus 5 is overpriced for this task type. Claude Fable 5 scores 100 in this category at a fraction of the cost."
Categorical Alternative Opportunity
"Claude Fable 5 leads this category with 100 points according to MMLU-Pro + GPQA Diamond (Apr 2026) data."
Inertia Tax Detected
"85% of traffic can be routed to cheaper models. Fast tier (GPT-5 Nano) and Smart tier (o3-mini) can save $27.54/month."
3-Tier Intelligent Routing Architecture
92% SAVINGS VIA ROUTINGGPT-5 Nano
IQ Score: 72/100
$18.00/yr
o3-mini
IQ Score: 97/100
$277.20/yr
DeepSeek R1
IQ Score: 97/100
$59.184/yr
Without tiered routing, you pay the 'Inertia Tax' — routing all traffic to the most expensive model regardless of task complexity. Tiered cascade eliminates $3,965.616/year in avoidable overhead.
Deep Logic — Model Cost / Quality Matrix
Source: MMLU-Pro + GPQA Diamond (Apr 2026)| Model | Benchmark | Input (per M) | Output (per M) | Annual Cost* | Value Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Claude Fable 5LEADER | 100/100 | $10.00 | $50.00 | $720.00 | 5/100 |
GPT-5.6 Sol | 99/100 | $5.00 | $30.00 | $420.00 | 8/100 |
Claude Opus 5SELECTED | 98/100 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $360.00 | 9/100 |
Claude Opus 4.6 | 98/100 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $360.00 | 9/100 |
DeepSeek R1BEST VALUE | 97/100 | $0.55 | $2.19 | $32.88 | 100/100 |
Claude Opus 4.8 | 96/100 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $360.00 | 9/100 |
Claude 3 Opus | 90/100 | $15.00 | $75.00 | $1,080.00 | 3/100 |
Llama 3.1 405B | 88/100 | $2.70 | $2.70 | $64.80 | 46/100 |
* Annual cost for given volumes. Value Index = Score / Cost (Higher = Best Value).
// iOPTERA Surgical Routing Wrapper
const auditModel = async (prompt: string) => {
const complexity = measureComplexity(prompt);
// Tactical Cascade Logic
if (complexity < 0.45) {
// Redirect simple tasks to efficient model
return await llm.call("iOPTERA Optimization", prompt);
}
// High-latency routing for complex reasoning
return await llm.call("Claude Fable 5", prompt);
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