Pick Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 or agentic coding — within 0.5% of fable 5's peak cursorbench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (anthropic's figures). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra for balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price or competitive with gpt-5.5 quality at about 2x lower cost. On a tight budget at scale, GPT-5.6 Terra is the value pick.
Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) and GPT-5.6 Terra (OpenAI) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Opus 5 is anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. GPT-5.6 Terra is the mid-tier daily driver of the GPT-5.6 family — near-flagship quality at about half of Sol's cost. Their biggest split is price, and the breakdown below shows exactly how that plays out for your workload.
Key differences
Price: GPT-5.6 Terra is about 2× cheaper on input ($2.5/$15 per 1M tokens vs $5/$25 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
Context window: both advertise 1M (~1,500 pages). Tie on paper — test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
Recency: Claude Opus 5 is the newer model by about 15 days (released July 24, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Specifications
Spec
Claude Opus 5
GPT-5.6 Terra
Provider
Anthropic (US)
OpenAI (US)
Released
July 24, 2026
July 9, 2026
Context window
1M (~1,500 pages)
1M (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)
$5/$25 per 1M tokens
$2.5/$15 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
No — API only
No — API only
Modalities
text, image, code
text, image, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1: Claude Opus 5 — GPT-5.6 Terra is comparatively weak here — fewer independently verified benchmarks than Sol, and trails it across coding evals
Agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures): Claude Opus 5 — Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak — and it is the newer of the two.
Computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost: Claude Opus 5 — Claude Opus 5 lists computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost among its strengths; GPT-5.6 Terra does not.
Balanced everyday work at roughly half of Sol's price: GPT-5.6 Terra — At $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Opus 5 ($5/$25 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.
Competitive with GPT-5.5 quality at about 2x lower cost: GPT-5.6 Terra — The mid-tier daily driver of the GPT-5.6 family — near-flagship quality at about half of Sol's cost — and it runs cheaper at $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens.
Solid agentic coding (Terminal-Bench 2.1 in the mid-80s): GPT-5.6 Terra — Claude Opus 5 is comparatively weak here — all launch benchmarks are Anthropic-reported and not yet independently reproduced
Lowest cost at scale: GPT-5.6 Terra — At $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume: GPT-5.6 Terra — At $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Opus 5, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Anyone whose priority is frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1: Claude Opus 5 — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price: GPT-5.6 Terra — That is its strongest area.
Claude Opus 5: where it fits
Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. Released July 24, 2026 by Anthropic, it is built for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1, agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures), computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost, and a native effort setting (low, medium, high, xhigh, max) that trades token cost against capability on a single model.
Its trade-offs are real: behind Mythos 5 on cybersecurity exploitation and biology research, by Anthropic's own account, all launch benchmarks are Anthropic-reported and not yet independently reproduced, no published SWE-Bench Verified score, so head-to-head coding comparisons rely on Anthropic's own benchmark suite, and fast mode's throughput costs double the base price ($10/$50 per 1M). At $5 in / $25 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.
GPT-5.6 Terra: where it fits
The mid-tier daily driver of the GPT-5.6 family — near-flagship quality at about half of Sol's cost. Released July 9, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for balanced everyday work at roughly half of Sol's price, competitive with GPT-5.5 quality at about 2x lower cost, solid agentic coding (Terminal-Bench 2.1 in the mid-80s), and same 1M context and programmatic tool calling as Sol.
Its trade-offs: fewer independently verified benchmarks than Sol, and trails it across coding evals, and no open weights. At $2.5 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. GPT-5.6 Terra costs less per token; and each leads in its own area — Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1, GPT-5.6 Terra for balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Opus 5 leans toward frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 while GPT-5.6 Terra leans toward balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra?
GPT-5.6 Terra is cheaper — $5/$25 per 1M tokens vs $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens, roughly 2× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both advertise 1M (~1,500 pages). Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Opus 5, GPT-5.6 Terra and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra?
Claude Opus 5 — released July 24, 2026, about 15 days after GPT-5.6 Terra.
Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Anthropic · US | OpenAI · US · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 or agentic coding — within 0.5% of fable 5's peak cursorbench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (anthropic's figures). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra for balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price or competitive with gpt-5.5 quality at about 2x lower cost. On a tight budget at scale, GPT-5.6 Terra is the value pick.
Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) and GPT-5.6 Terra (OpenAI) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Opus 5 is anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. GPT-5.6 Terra is the mid-tier daily driver of the GPT-5.6 family — near-flagship quality at about half of Sol's cost. Their biggest split is price, and the breakdown below shows exactly how that plays out for your workload.
Key differences at a glance
▸Price: GPT-5.6 Terra is about 2× cheaper on input ($2.5/$15 per 1M tokens vs $5/$25 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
▸Context window: both advertise 1M (~1,500 pages). Tie on paper — test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
▸Recency: Claude Opus 5 is the newer model by about 15 days (released July 24, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Claude Opus 5
GPT-5.6 Terra
Provider
Anthropic (US)
OpenAI (US)
Released
July 24, 2026
July 9, 2026
Context window
1M (~1,500 pages)
1M (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)
$5/$25 per 1M tokens
$2.5/$15 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
No — API only
No — API only
Modalities
text, image, code
text, image, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1
Claude Opus 5
GPT-5.6 Terra is comparatively weak here — fewer independently verified benchmarks than Sol, and trails it across coding evals
Agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures)
Claude Opus 5
Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak — and it is the newer of the two.
Computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost
Claude Opus 5
Claude Opus 5 lists computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost among its strengths; GPT-5.6 Terra does not.
Balanced everyday work at roughly half of Sol's price
GPT-5.6 Terra
At $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Opus 5 ($5/$25 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.
Competitive with GPT-5.5 quality at about 2x lower cost
GPT-5.6 Terra
The mid-tier daily driver of the GPT-5.6 family — near-flagship quality at about half of Sol's cost — and it runs cheaper at $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens.
Solid agentic coding (Terminal-Bench 2.1 in the mid-80s)
GPT-5.6 Terra
Claude Opus 5 is comparatively weak here — all launch benchmarks are Anthropic-reported and not yet independently reproduced
Lowest cost at scale
GPT-5.6 Terra
At $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ GPT-5.6 Terra
At $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens it undercuts Claude Opus 5, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Anyone whose priority is frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1
→ Claude Opus 5
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price
→ GPT-5.6 Terra
That is its strongest area.
Claude Opus 5: where it fits
Anthropic's July 2026 flagship at $5/$25 with a 1M window and an effort dial — near-frontier quality pitched on cost per task, not raw peak. Released July 24, 2026 by Anthropic, it is built for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — Anthropic reports it more than doubling Opus 4.8 on Frontier-Bench v0.1, agentic coding — within 0.5% of Fable 5's peak CursorBench 3.2 score at half the cost per task (Anthropic's figures), computer use — surpasses Fable 5's best OSWorld 2.0 result at just over a third of the cost, and a native effort setting (low, medium, high, xhigh, max) that trades token cost against capability on a single model.
Its trade-offs are real: behind Mythos 5 on cybersecurity exploitation and biology research, by Anthropic's own account, all launch benchmarks are Anthropic-reported and not yet independently reproduced, no published SWE-Bench Verified score, so head-to-head coding comparisons rely on Anthropic's own benchmark suite, and fast mode's throughput costs double the base price ($10/$50 per 1M). At $5 in / $25 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.
GPT-5.6 Terra: where it fits
The mid-tier daily driver of the GPT-5.6 family — near-flagship quality at about half of Sol's cost. Released July 9, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for balanced everyday work at roughly half of Sol's price, competitive with GPT-5.5 quality at about 2x lower cost, solid agentic coding (Terminal-Bench 2.1 in the mid-80s), and same 1M context and programmatic tool calling as Sol.
Its trade-offs: fewer independently verified benchmarks than Sol, and trails it across coding evals, and no open weights. At $2.5 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. GPT-5.6 Terra costs less per token; and each leads in its own area — Claude Opus 5 for frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1, GPT-5.6 Terra for balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Want both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
Is Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Opus 5 leans toward frontier reasoning at lower cost per task — anthropic reports it more than doubling opus 4.8 on frontier-bench v0.1 while GPT-5.6 Terra leans toward balanced everyday work at roughly half of sol's price, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra?
GPT-5.6 Terra is cheaper — $5/$25 per 1M tokens vs $2.5/$15 per 1M tokens, roughly 2× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both advertise 1M (~1,500 pages). Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Opus 5, GPT-5.6 Terra and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra?
Claude Opus 5 — released July 24, 2026, about 15 days after GPT-5.6 Terra.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.