Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Cheaper Choice
$0.00
per month
Input cost
Output cost
Cost per request
Requests/month
OpenAI
GPT-5.5
$0.00
per month
Input cost
Output cost
Cost per request
Requests/month

Other Models to Consider

Claude Opus 4.8
Anthropic
$5.00 / $25.00 per 1M
1M context
GPT-5
OpenAI
$1.25 / $10.00 per 1M
272K context
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Google
$2.00 / $12.00 per 1M
1M context

Which Model for Which Use Case?

Cost-Sensitive Production

At $3/$15 vs $5/$30, Sonnet 4.6 saves 40-50% per request. At 1M requests/day, you'd save $6,000/mo vs GPT-5.5.

Cheaper: Claude Sonnet 4.6

Complex Reasoning & Analysis

GPT-5.5 excels at multi-step reasoning and complex analysis. If your tasks require deep chain-of-thought reasoning, GPT-5.5's larger model may justify the cost.

Better reasoning: GPT-5.5

Coding & Instruction Following

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is widely regarded as one of the best coding models. It follows complex instructions precisely and produces cleaner code output.

Better for coding: Claude Sonnet 4.6

OpenAI Ecosystem

If you're already using OpenAI's function calling, Assistants API, or other OpenAI-specific features, GPT-5.5 integrates seamlessly with your existing stack.

Better OpenAI integration: GPT-5.5

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 cheaper than GPT-5.5?

Yes. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output — 40% cheaper on input and 50% cheaper on output than GPT-5.5's $5.00/M input and $30.00/M output.

Which model has a larger context window?

Both have 1M token context windows. They're equally capable of handling long documents and complex multi-turn conversations.

When would I choose GPT-5.5 over Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Choose GPT-5.5 if you need OpenAI's ecosystem, function calling, or prefer GPT's reasoning style. GPT-5.5 also has stronger multimodal capabilities.

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 worth the savings over GPT-5.5?

At 40-50% lower cost with comparable quality, Claude Sonnet 4.6 offers excellent value. Many teams find Sonnet's instruction-following and coding abilities match or exceed GPT-5.5 for their use cases.

Related Comparisons

Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5 →
Mid-tier vs premium
Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5
Premium vs premium
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Sonnet 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Mid-tier vs budget

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