Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.8 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) | GPT-5.5 (medium) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $5 | $5 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $25 | $30 |
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Claude Opus 4.8 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $10.00/M tokens vs $11.25/M for GPT-5.5 (medium).
Claude Opus 4.8 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) wins 4 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 2 for GPT-5.5 (medium). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
GPT-5.5 (medium) generates tokens faster at 67 tok/s vs 61 tok/s. However, GPT-5.5 (medium) has lower time-to-first-token (5.29s vs 25.40s).
Choose based on your priorities: Claude Opus 4.8 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) for lower cost, Claude Opus 4.8 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) for stronger benchmark performance, and GPT-5.5 (medium) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.