Claude Haiku 5.5 Max vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max compared

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 54.5 to 36.5. Compare price, speed, latency and a clear verdict.

Metric	Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)	Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Intelligence Index	36.5	54.5
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.10	$2.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$0.50	$10.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	233	136
Time to first token	4.6 min	6.5 min
Release date	2026-10-07	2026-09-28

Metric

Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)

Intelligence Index

36.5

54.5

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.10

$2.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$0.50

$10.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

233

136

Time to first token

4.6 min

6.5 min

Release date

2026-10-07

2026-09-28

This is an all-Anthropic comparison, with Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) on one side and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) on the other. This page is written automatically from catalogue numbers only: benchmark scores, list prices and measured speed. The clearest gap is on the bill: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max is 20 times the blended price of Claude Haiku 5.5 Max.

Token pricing and a sample bill

The list prices are $0.10 in and $0.50 out for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, and $2.00 in and $10.00 out for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max, per million tokens. That makes Claude Haiku 5.5 Max's output 95% cheaper.

A reference job of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens costs $0.20 with Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $4.00 with Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max, so Claude Haiku 5.5 Max saves $3.80. A bigger example, classifying 100,000 short messages at 150 input tokens and 5 output tokens each, costs $1.75 on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $35.00 on Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max: a gap of $33.25.

The headline benchmark

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max records 36.5 on the intelligence index and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max records 54.5. The difference is large enough that the lower-scoring model has to win on cost or speed to stay in the running. In relative terms, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max scores 49% higher.

Across the 109 active models with an intelligence score in the catalogue, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max ranks 37th and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max ranks 9th.

Specialist coding and math indexes are missing for both, so treat the overall score as the only capability signal here.

Cost per point of intelligence

Dividing the blended price by the intelligence index gives a rough cost per point: $0.0055 for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $0.073 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max, per million tokens. So Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max buys its higher score at a premium, while Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is the value pick, paying 93% less per point.

Release timing

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max arrived on October 7, 2026, 9 days after Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max (September 28, 2026). That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

Speed and latency

Once a response is under way, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max produces roughly 233 tokens per second against 136 tokens per second for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max. That makes Claude Haiku 5.5 Max roughly 1.7 times as fast at writing. The wait for the first token averages 4.6 minutes on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max against 6.5 minutes on Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max gets to its first token 1.4 times as fast. Waits that long are felt on every chat-style request, though they matter less for batch jobs.

Add the two numbers up for a 2,000-token reply and Claude Haiku 5.5 Max finishes first: 4.8 minutes for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, 6.7 minutes for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max.

Common questions about Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max better than Claude Haiku 5.5 Max?

It depends on what you need: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 54.5 to 36.5; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is 95% cheaper on blended price; and Claude Haiku 5.5 Max streams output 1.7 times as fast.

Which is newer, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is newer. It was released on October 7, 2026, 9 days after Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max (September 28, 2026).

Where do these numbers come from?

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.

Which is faster, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max or Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates output faster, at 233 tokens per second against 136 tokens per second. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max reaches its first token sooner (4.6 minutes against 6.5 minutes).

Are Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max from the same company?

Both are Anthropic models, listed as separate models in the catalogue. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max was released on October 7, 2026 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max on September 28, 2026.

Final whistle

In one line: neither Claude Haiku 5.5 Max nor Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max wins outright; each leads where the other is weaker. Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max if you need the higher overall score (54.5 against 36.5). Pick Claude Haiku 5.5 Max if cost matters ($0.50 against $10.00 per million output tokens) and long outputs need to finish quickly.

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 Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.