Claude Opus 5 Max vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max compared

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 54.5 to 44.2. Price per token, response speed and when to pick each.

Metric	Claude Opus 5 (Max)	Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Intelligence Index	44.2	54.5
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$5.00	$2.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$25.00	$10.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	50	136
Time to first token	62s	6.5 min
Release date	2026-07-24	2026-09-28

Metric

Claude Opus 5 (Max)

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)

Intelligence Index

44.2

54.5

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$5.00

$2.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$25.00

$10.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

136

Time to first token

62s

6.5 min

Release date

2026-07-24

2026-09-28

This is an all-Anthropic comparison, with Claude Opus 5 (Max) on one side and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) on the other. The headline gap is on the intelligence index, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max scores 54.5 and Claude Opus 5 Max 44.2. Everything below is read from the benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's catalogue; nothing here comes from a hands-on test.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max leads on the intelligence index

On the intelligence index, Claude Opus 5 Max scores 44.2 against 54.5 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max. That is a wide gap for an aggregate score.

Across the 109 active models with an intelligence score in the catalogue, Claude Opus 5 Max ranks 26th and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max ranks 9th.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

Throughput and time to first token

Measured output speed is 50 tokens per second for Claude Opus 5 Max and 136 tokens per second for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max. That makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max roughly 2.7 times as fast at writing. Before any text appears, Claude Opus 5 Max takes 62 seconds and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max 6.5 minutes. The faster writer, Claude Sonnet 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 26,000 tokens. Waits that long are felt on every chat-style request, though they matter less for batch jobs.

Put together, a 2,000-token answer would take about 102 seconds from Claude Opus 5 Max and 6.7 minutes from Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max, counting the first-token wait.

Which is newer

The release dates are July 24, 2026 for Claude Opus 5 Max and September 28, 2026 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max, about 2 months apart.

Token pricing and a sample bill

Claude Opus 5 Max lists $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max lists $2.00 and $10.00. That makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max's output 60% cheaper.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $10.00 on Claude Opus 5 Max and $4.00 on Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max. Scale it up to a month of coding-assistant traffic at 30 million input and 3 million output tokens and the bill is $225 for Claude Opus 5 Max against $90.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max. On a 3:1 blend of input to output tokens, that works out to $10.00 versus $4.00 per million.

Is the price in proportion?

A blunt value measure, blended price over intelligence score, puts Claude Opus 5 Max at $0.23 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max at $0.073 per point. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max scores higher and costs less per point, so on price per point there is nothing to trade off.

FAQ

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

Neither wins everywhere: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 54.5 to 44.2; Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max is 60% cheaper on blended price; Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max streams output 2.7 times as fast; and Claude Opus 5 Max reaches its first token sooner.

Are Claude Opus 5 Max and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max from the same company?

Both are Anthropic models, listed as separate models in the catalogue. Claude Opus 5 Max was released on July 24, 2026 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max on 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.

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

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max is newer. It was released on September 28, 2026, about 2 months after Claude Opus 5 Max (July 24, 2026).

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

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Opus 5 Max lists $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max lists $2.00 and $10.00. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $10.00 against $4.00.

Final whistle

Short answer: on balance the numbers favour Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max, though Claude Opus 5 Max keeps a case of its own. Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max if you need the higher overall score (54.5 against 44.2) and cost matters ($10.00 against $25.00 per million output tokens). Pick Claude Opus 5 Max if users are waiting on the first word and replies need to finish sooner at typical lengths.

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 Opus 5 (Max) and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.