Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol list at exactly the same price, $2 in and $10 out per 1M tokens, so the real question is which one finishes a job for less.
Our verdict
At the same list price, judge by cost per finished job. Artificial Analysis scores Claude Sonnet 5.5 higher (56 against 52, 1 Oct 2026 capture) but found it very wordy: its average cost per index task was about $7.60 against about $0.72 for GPT-6.1 Sol. For routine coding and agent work, try GPT-6.1 Sol first; move to Claude Sonnet 5.5 when your own test shows it is worth the extra output. GPT-6.1 Sol also scores 81.6 on LiveBench at about $0.14 per successful task. One catch on GPT-6.1 Sol: prompts over 272K input tokens bill the whole request at double input and 1.5 times output, while Claude Sonnet 5.5 bills its full 1M-token window at the standard rate.
Benchmarks measure test tasks, not your business. Run a real job through both models before you commit.
Side by side
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | GPT-6.1 Sol | |
|---|---|---|
| Lab | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| List price per 1M tokens (input / output) | $2 / $10 | $2 / $10 |
| Scheduled price | - | - |
| Price notes | The full 1M-token window bills at the standard rate; cache reads $0.10 per 1M. | Prompts over 272K input tokens bill the whole request at 2x input and 1.5x output; cached input $0.10 per 1M. |
| Example job at list price | $4 | $4 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens |
| Released | ||
| Open weights | No | No |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 56 (Oct 1, 2026 capture) | 52 (Oct 1, 2026 capture) |
1M tokens in and 200K tokens out. List price only: models write different amounts, so a finished job can cost more or less. (1,000,000 / 200,000)
Common questions
Do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol cost the same?
Per token, yes: $2 in and $10 out per 1M tokens for each. Per finished job they can differ a lot because the models write different amounts. Artificial Analysis recorded about $7.60 per index task for Sonnet 5.5 and about $0.72 for GPT-6.1 Sol.
Which scores higher, Sonnet 5.5 or GPT-6.1 Sol?
On the independent Artificial Analysis index Sonnet 5.5 scores 56 and GPT-6.1 Sol 52 (1 Oct 2026 capture). Anthropic reports 70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 for Sonnet 5.5, and OpenAI reports Sol matching GPT-6 Astra on the DeepSWE coding benchmark at about a fifth of the cost; both are the vendors' own figures.
Which is better for a small business?
Start with GPT-6.1 Sol for coding and agent work because it usually finishes for less, and keep prompts under 272K tokens. Switch to Sonnet 5.5 if your own test shows better output, or if you need very long prompts at the standard rate.
Sources
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