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Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6
Of the 6 public leaderboards that rate both, Claude Opus 5 scores higher on 5 and GPT-5.6 on 1. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Claude Opus 5 is at 84.8 and GPT-5.6 at 70.7 (out of 100).
Scores as published by each board; table composed September 24, 2026.
Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | Claude Opus 5 | GPT-5.6 | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,692.4 | 1,617.1 | Claude Opus 5 |
| LiveBench global average (0-100) | 80.1 | 81.1 | GPT-5.6 |
| SimpleBench AVG@5 % (private set) | 80.6 | 71.7 | Claude Opus 5 |
| LLM Stats LLM Stats Score · composite (0-100), their rendered top 15 | 54.8 | 54.4 | Claude Opus 5 |
| Vals AI Vals Index accuracy % · weighted finance + coding tasks | 67.2 | 63.7 | Claude Opus 5 |
| Artificial Analysis intelligence index · measured runs only | 50.8 | 47 | Claude Opus 5 |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
Claude Opus 5 at a glance
- Developer
- Anthropic
- Status
- Live since July 24, 2026
Live — detected 16:51 UTC Jul 24, alert fired 61s later · superseded by Opus 5.5 on Sep 22 and moved to Anthropic's legacy list; still served at $5/$25, which is now MORE than its successor.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
Live — Sol · Terra · Luna since Jul 9 · repriced Jul 30: Luna −80%, Terra −20%.
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.
OpenAI cut Luna 80% — Azure kept the old price, so Luna costs 5× more on Azure than direct
2026-08-04 · OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna by 80% on July 30. We covered it. What we did not check — and should have, because it is the number that actually lands on a bill — is whether the clouds passed it on.
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. Of the 6 public leaderboards that rate both, Claude Opus 5 scores higher on 5 and GPT-5.6 on 1. Claude Opus 5's widest lead is on LLM Stats; GPT-5.6's widest lead is on LiveBench. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Claude Opus 5 is at 84.8 and GPT-5.6 at 70.7 (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).
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 September 24, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
More comparisons
Watch free: Chrome push the moment a new model answers on a public API, an email about 15 minutes later. Also: the bench index · the wire