Comparisons

GPT-5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5

On provider list prices, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $3 per million input tokens against $5 for GPT-5.5: 1.7x apart. Output is $15 against $30 (2.0x).

GPT-5.5 Claude Sonnet 5
LabOpenAIAnthropic
AccessAPI onlyAPI only
Context window400K tokens1M tokens
List price, input$5 / M tokens$3 / M tokens
List price, output$30 / M tokens$15 / M tokens
Cached input$0.5 / M tokensn/a
LicenseProprietary APIProprietary API
Fine-tunableNoNo

Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-21.

What the numbers say

Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $8,850 a month on Claude Sonnet 5 and $16,500 on GPT-5.5 at list: a gap of $7,650, or 1.9x.

Claude Sonnet 5 reads 1M tokens per request against 400K for GPT-5.5, 2.5x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.

Claude Sonnet 5$3$15
GPT-5.5$5$30
InputOutput

Choose GPT-5.5 for

  • Complex tool-using agents
  • Code generation
  • General assistants
GPT-5.5 details

Choose Claude Sonnet 5 for

  • Judgment calls with policy context
  • Customer-facing writing
  • Review and escalation flows
Claude Sonnet 5 details

Common questions

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $3/$15 per million tokens in and out against $5/$30 for GPT-5.5. Billed on Allocate: $3.21/$16.05 against $5.35/$32.10.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5: 1,000,000 tokens (1M) against 400,000 (400K) for GPT-5.5.

Can I fine-tune GPT-5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5?

No. Both are closed models served over API. If you want a model you can train and own, start from an open-weights base in the catalog.

Related comparisons

Run the numbers on your workload

Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.