Claude Haiku 5.5 Max vs Claude Opus 5 Max: which is cheaper?

Claude Opus 5 Max leads the intelligence index 44.2 to 36.5. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs 98% less on blended price. See token costs, speed and which to pick.

Metric	Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)	Claude Opus 5 (Max)
Intelligence Index	36.5	44.2
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.10	$5.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$0.50	$25.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	233	50
Time to first token	4.6 min	62s
Release date	2026-10-07	2026-07-24

Metric

Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)

Claude Opus 5 (Max)

Intelligence Index

36.5

44.2

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.10

$5.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$0.50

$25.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

233

Time to first token

4.6 min

62s

Release date

2026-10-07

2026-07-24

This is an all-Anthropic comparison, with Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) on one side and Claude Opus 5 (Max) on the other. What follows is built entirely from tracked data, so where the catalogue is silent, this page says so instead of guessing. Cost is where they split the most, with Claude Haiku 5.5 Max working out at about 2% of Claude Opus 5 Max's blended rate.

Token pricing and a sample bill

The list prices are $0.10 in and $0.50 out for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, and $5.00 in and $25.00 out for Claude Opus 5 Max, per million tokens. That makes Claude Haiku 5.5 Max's output 98% cheaper.

For a sample workload of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max would cost $0.20 and Claude Opus 5 Max $10.00, a difference of $9.80. For a month of coding-assistant traffic at 30 million input and 3 million output tokens, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max would come in 98% lower: $4.50 for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max against $225 for Claude Opus 5 Max.

Claude Opus 5 Max leads on the intelligence index

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max records 36.5 on the intelligence index and Claude Opus 5 Max records 44.2. It is a meaningful gap rather than a rounding difference.

For context, that places Claude Haiku 5.5 Max 37th and Claude Opus 5 Max 26th out of 109 scored models still on offer.

Neither model has a separate coding or math index recorded yet, so those narrower comparisons will have to wait for more data.

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is the faster writer

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates about 233 tokens per second and Claude Opus 5 Max about 50 tokens per second. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is ahead by 367% on throughput. The wait for the first token averages 4.6 minutes on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max against 62 seconds on Claude Opus 5 Max. The faster writer, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, gives away too much at the start to win on time: counting the first-token wait, Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first for any reply shorter than about 14,000 tokens. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

Add the two numbers up for a 400-token reply and Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first: 4.7 minutes for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, 70 seconds for Claude Opus 5 Max.

Value for money

Dividing the blended price by the intelligence index gives a rough cost per point: $0.0055 for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $0.23 for Claude Opus 5 Max, per million tokens. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max delivers each index point for 98% less; whether Claude Opus 5 Max's extra 7.7 points are worth the premium depends on how often your tasks need them.

When they came out

Claude Opus 5 Max came first, on July 24, 2026; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max followed on October 7, 2026.

Common questions about Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and Claude Opus 5 Max

Is Claude Haiku 5.5 Max better than Claude Opus 5 Max?

It depends on what you need: Claude Opus 5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 44.2 to 36.5; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is 98% cheaper on blended price; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max streams output 4.7 times as fast; and Claude Opus 5 Max reaches its first token sooner.

Which model has lower latency?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates output faster, at 233 tokens per second against 50 tokens per second. Claude Opus 5 Max reaches its first token sooner (62 seconds against 4.6 minutes). Counting the first-token wait, Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first for any reply shorter than about 14,000 tokens.

When were Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and Claude Opus 5 Max released?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is newer. It was released on October 7, 2026, about 2 months after Claude Opus 5 Max (July 24, 2026).

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Is Claude Opus 5 Max cheaper than Claude Haiku 5.5 Max?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max lists $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 5 Max lists $5.00 and $25.00. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $0.20 against $10.00.

Final whistle

Bottom line: Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is the stronger all-round pick on this data, while Claude Opus 5 Max makes sense in narrower cases. Pick Claude Opus 5 Max if you need the higher overall score (44.2 against 36.5) and replies need to finish sooner at typical lengths. Pick Claude Haiku 5.5 Max if cost matters ($0.50 against $25.00 per million output tokens) and you generate very long outputs, beyond about 14,000 tokens.

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) and Claude Opus 5 (Max) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.