Claude Opus 5 Max vs GPT-6 Astra Max: which scores higher?

GPT-6 Astra Max leads the intelligence index 56.9 to 44.2. Claude Opus 5 Max costs 50% less on blended price. Compare price, speed, latency and a clear verdict.

Metric	Claude Opus 5 (Max)	GPT-6 Astra (Max)
Intelligence Index	44.2	56.9
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$5.00	$10.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$25.00	$50.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	50	46
Time to first token	62s	6.8 min
Release date	2026-07-24	2026-09-03

Metric

Claude Opus 5 (Max)

GPT-6 Astra (Max)

Intelligence Index

44.2

56.9

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$5.00

$10.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$25.00

$50.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

Time to first token

62s

6.8 min

Release date

2026-07-24

2026-09-03

This matchup crosses tiers: GPT-6 Astra (Max) from OpenAI against Claude Opus 5 (Max) from Anthropic. GPT-6 Astra Max leads the intelligence index 56.9 to 44.2, a gap of 12.7 points. The figures come from tracked catalogue data, not from our own testing, so treat them as a starting point for a trial on your tasks.

Overall capability: 12.7 points apart

The catalogue puts Claude Opus 5 Max at 44.2 and GPT-6 Astra Max at 56.9 on its intelligence index. This is a substantial lead, not a near miss.

Among 109 active scored models, Claude Opus 5 Max sits 26th and GPT-6 Astra Max 5th.

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

Throughput and time to first token

Once a response is under way, Claude Opus 5 Max produces roughly 50 tokens per second against 46 tokens per second for GPT-6 Astra Max. Claude Opus 5 Max is ahead by 8% on throughput. Before any text appears, Claude Opus 5 Max takes 62 seconds and GPT-6 Astra Max 6.8 minutes. GPT-6 Astra Max waits 6.6 times as long before its first token. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

Add the two numbers up for a 1,000-token reply and Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first: 82 seconds for Claude Opus 5 Max, 7.2 minutes for GPT-6 Astra Max.

What they cost

Per million tokens, Claude Opus 5 Max charges $5.00 for input and $25.00 for output, while GPT-6 Astra Max charges $10.00 and $50.00. GPT-6 Astra Max costs twice as much per output token.

For a sample workload of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens, Claude Opus 5 Max would cost $10.00 and GPT-6 Astra Max $20.00, a difference of $10.00. Scale it up to an agent that reads 50 million tokens and writes 5 million in a month and the bill is $375 for Claude Opus 5 Max against $750 for GPT-6 Astra Max.

Is the price in proportion?

Dividing the blended price by the intelligence index gives a rough cost per point: $0.23 for Claude Opus 5 Max and $0.35 for GPT-6 Astra Max, per million tokens. GPT-6 Astra Max costs 1.6 times as much per point, which is the price of its lead.

When they came out

GPT-6 Astra Max arrived on September 3, 2026, 41 days after Claude Opus 5 Max (July 24, 2026). That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

Quick answers

Is Claude Opus 5 Max better than GPT-6 Astra Max?

Not across the board: GPT-6 Astra Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 56.9 to 44.2; Claude Opus 5 Max is 50% cheaper on blended price; and Claude Opus 5 Max streams output 1.1 times as fast.

Who makes Claude Opus 5 Max and GPT-6 Astra Max?

Claude Opus 5 Max is made by Anthropic and GPT-6 Astra Max by OpenAI. Claude Opus 5 Max was released on July 24, 2026 and GPT-6 Astra Max on September 3, 2026.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 Max or GPT-6 Astra Max?

Claude Opus 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; GPT-6 Astra Max lists $10.00 and $50.00. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $10.00 against $20.00.

Which model has lower latency?

Claude Opus 5 Max generates output faster, at 50 tokens per second against 46 tokens per second. Claude Opus 5 Max reaches its first token sooner (62 seconds against 6.8 minutes).

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.

Final whistle

In one line: GPT-6 Astra 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 users are waiting on the first word and cost matters ($25.00 against $50.00 per million output tokens). Pick GPT-6 Astra Max if you need the higher overall score (56.9 against 44.2) and you want the more recent release.

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 GPT-6 Astra (Max) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.