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Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6
Claude Opus 5 scores higher than GPT-5.6 on all 3 public leaderboards that rate both. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Claude Opus 5 is at 74.1 and GPT-5.6 at 48.1 (out of 100). On each maker's API, Claude Opus 5 costs $5 / $25 per 1M tokens (input / output) and GPT-5.6 $4 / $20.
Scores as published by each board; table composed November 7, 2026.
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Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | Claude Opus 5 | GPT-5.6 | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,691.3 | 1,615 | Claude Opus 5 |
| SimpleBench AVG@5 % (private set) | 80.6 | 71.7 | Claude Opus 5 |
| LLM Stats LLM Stats Score · composite (0-100), their rendered top 15 | 53.4 | 52.7 | Claude Opus 5 |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
For coding
On the ArtificialWatch coding index, Claude Opus 5 is at 86.7 (#6 of 45) and GPT-5.6 at 54 (#17). Claude Opus 5 scores higher on both coding boards that rate them.
| Coding board | Claude Opus 5 | GPT-5.6 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena · Coding | 1,532.7 | 1,495.7 |
| Vals Vibe Code Bench | 88.4 | 80.5 |
Claude Opus 5 at a glance
- Developer
- Anthropic
- Status
- Live since July 24, 2026
- API price
- $5 input / $25 output per 1M tokens · Anthropic, claude-opus-5
- Context window
- 1M tokens
Live — detected 16:51 UTC Jul 24, alert fired 61s later · superseded by Opus 5.5 on Sep 22 and moved to Anthropic's legacy list; still served at $5/$25, which is now MORE than its successor.
Claude Opus 5 is live — we detected it at 16:51 UTC and had alerts out 61 seconds later
2026-07-24 · Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 went live on the public API today. Our checkers saw the id appear at 16:51:33 UTC, confirmed it on the next 60-second sweep, and the alert blast went out at 16:52:34 — sixty-one seconds from first sighting to inbox.
GPT-5.6 at a glance
- Developer
- OpenAI
- Status
- Live since July 9, 2026
- API price
- $4 input / $20 output per 1M tokens · OpenAI, gpt-5.6
- Context window
- 1.05M tokens
Live — Sol · Terra · Luna since Jul 9 · repriced Jul 30: Luna −80%, Terra −20%.
OpenAI Daybreak, explained: Blue vs Red access, GPT-5.6-Cyber, the $1B defender fund, and Sophos's 89-second cases
2026-10-12 · OpenAI Daybreak is OpenAI's program for putting its most cyber-capable models in the hands of approved defenders. On October 9 OpenAI published its first big customer result: Sophos says agents it built on Daybreak cut its average response time on those cases from about 38 minutes to about 89 seconds.
Three ChatGPT leaks in five hours were one release note — and the line none of them quoted is the real change
2026-08-06 · Three separate leaks landed in five hours claiming three separate ChatGPT changes: an upgraded GPT-5.6 Sol for Plus and Pro, a new reasoning slider rolling out, and unlimited chats coming for free users. All three are real.
Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6: quick answers
Which is better, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6?
It depends on what you measure. Claude Opus 5 scores higher than GPT-5.6 on all 3 public leaderboards that rate both. Claude Opus 5's widest lead is on LLM Stats. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Claude Opus 5 is at 74.1 and GPT-5.6 at 48.1 (out of 100).
Which is newer, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6?
Claude Opus 5. It went live on July 24, 2026, 15 days after GPT-5.6 (July 9, 2026).
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6?
GPT-5.6 is cheaper on both input and output. On each vendor's own API, Claude Opus 5 is $5 input / $25 output per million tokens and GPT-5.6 is $4 input / $20 output per million tokens. GPT-5.6's rate rises for prompts over 272K tokens. Prices as published in the models.dev catalog, as of 2026-11-07.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6?
GPT-5.6, at 1.05M tokens against Claude Opus 5's 1M, as each vendor lists it.
How do Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 compare for coding?
On the ArtificialWatch coding index, Claude Opus 5 is at 86.7 (#6 of 45) and GPT-5.6 at 54 (#17). Claude Opus 5 scores higher on both coding boards that rate them.
Who makes Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6?
Claude Opus 5 is from Anthropic; GPT-5.6 is from OpenAI.
Where do these numbers come from?
Each score is the leaderboard's own published figure, read by ArtificialWatch (table composed November 7, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
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Also: the bench index · API pricing · what a workload costs on each · the wire