Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max vs Tencent Hy4 compared

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 54.5 to 34.6. Tencent Hy4 costs 69% less on blended price. Compare price, speed, latency and a clear verdict.

Metric	Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)	Tencent Hy4
Intelligence Index	54.5	34.6
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$2.00	$0.834
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$10.00	$2.501
Output speed (tokens/s)	136	94
Time to first token	6.5 min	2.4s
Release date	2026-09-28	2026-11-03

Metric

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)

Tencent Hy4

Intelligence Index

54.5

34.6

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$2.00

$0.834

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$10.00

$2.501

Output speed (tokens/s)

136

Time to first token

6.5 min

2.4s

Release date

2026-09-28

2026-11-03

This matchup crosses tiers: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) from Anthropic against Tencent Hy4 from Tencent. No hands-on testing went into this write-up; it summarises the recorded benchmark, price and speed data for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 54.5 to 34.6, a gap of 19.9 points.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max leads on the intelligence index

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max comes out ahead on the intelligence index, 54.5 to 34.6. A gap this large suggests the two are built for different jobs. Put another way, Tencent Hy4 would need 58% more on this index to draw level.

Among 109 active scored models, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max sits 9th and Tencent Hy4 42nd.

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

Speed and latency

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max generates about 136 tokens per second and Tencent Hy4 about 94 tokens per second. That makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max roughly 1.5 times as fast at writing. The wait for the first token averages 6.5 minutes on Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max against 2.4 seconds on Tencent Hy4. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max writes faster once it starts, but Tencent Hy4's head start is large enough that Tencent Hy4 still finishes first at any typical reply length; Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max only catches up beyond about 120,000 tokens. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

For a 1,500-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 6.7 minutes on Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max and 18 seconds on Tencent Hy4.

Generation gap

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max came first, on September 28, 2026; Tencent Hy4 followed on November 3, 2026. That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

Running costs

Per million tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max charges $2.00 for input and $10.00 for output, while Tencent Hy4 charges $0.834 and $2.501. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max costs 4 times as much per output token.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $4.00 on Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max and $1.33 on Tencent Hy4. Scale it up to a support assistant answering 10,000 conversations of 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each and the bill is $90.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max against $29.18 for Tencent Hy4.

Cost per point of intelligence

Per point of intelligence index, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max costs $0.073 of blended price per million tokens and Tencent Hy4 $0.036. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max costs twice as much per point, which is the price of its lead.

Quick answers

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max better than Tencent Hy4?

It depends on what you need: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 54.5 to 34.6; Tencent Hy4 is 69% cheaper on blended price; Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max streams output 1.5 times as fast; and Tencent Hy4 reaches its first token sooner.

Is Tencent Hy4 cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max?

Tencent Hy4 is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max lists $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Tencent Hy4 lists $0.834 and $2.501. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $4.00 against $1.33.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max and Tencent Hy4?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max is made by Anthropic and Tencent Hy4 by Tencent. Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max was released on September 28, 2026 and Tencent Hy4 on November 3, 2026.

Which model has lower latency?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max generates output faster, at 136 tokens per second against 94 tokens per second. Tencent Hy4 reaches its first token sooner (2.4 seconds against 6.5 minutes). Counting the first-token wait, Tencent Hy4 finishes first for any reply shorter than about 120,000 tokens.

Which is newer, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max or Tencent Hy4?

Tencent Hy4 is newer. It was released on November 3, 2026, 36 days after Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max (September 28, 2026).

Final whistle

In one line: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max is the stronger all-round pick on this data, while Tencent Hy4 makes sense in narrower cases. Pick Tencent Hy4 if users are waiting on the first word and cost matters ($2.501 against $10.00 per million output tokens). Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 Max if you need the higher overall score (54.5 against 34.6) and you generate very long outputs, beyond about 120,000 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 Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) and Tencent Hy4 pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.