Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort, Default Fallback)
Wins 5 of 6 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Images and charts
Wins 0 of 6 areas
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Claude Opus 5.5 is the stronger all-rounder.
Both rank among the ten best models we track in long documents.
Scores updated · 11 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the six areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own20Claude Opus 5.52 of 2 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking20Claude Opus 5.52 of 2 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up20Claude Opus 5.52 of 2 tests
- CodingWriting and fixing software10Claude Opus 5.51 of 1 test
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video10Claude Opus 5.51 of 1 test
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts00Even0 each · 1 tie
Coding, images and charts and long documents rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Opus 5.5 pulls ahead
- Real work tasks from 44 professionsGDPVal+14points ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+9.8points ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+7.6points ahead
Where Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort, Default Fallback) pulls ahead
No clear win on a test scored out of 100.
Every test, side by side
All 11 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
AgentsClaude Opus 5.5
- GDPValClaude Opus 5.5 by 1468.354.3+14
- Terminal-Bench 4.0Claude Opus 5.5 by 7.159.652.5+7.1
ReasoningClaude Opus 5.5
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Opus 5.5 by 6.761.454.7+6.7
- CritPtClaude Opus 5.5 by 431.727.7+4
FactsClaude Opus 5.5
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationClaude Opus 5.5 by 9.841.431.6+9.8
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Opus 5.5 by 1.666.264.5+1.6
Images and chartsClaude Opus 5.5
- MMMU-ProClaude Opus 5.5 by 287.785.7+2
Other results2 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- AA IntelligenceClaude Opus 5.5 by 6.457.651.2+6.4
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Opus 5.5 by 6.146.440.3+6.1
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Opus 5.5 or Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort, Default Fallback)?
Claude Opus 5.5 wins five of the six areas where both have results: coding, agents, reasoning, facts and images and charts. Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort, Default Fallback) wins none. They are level on long documents.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Opus 5.5. It wins the one coding test both models report.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00 per million input tokens and $20.00 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Medium Effort, Default Fallback) costs $4.00 and $20.00. For a million tokens read plus a million written, they cost about the same.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 11 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 9 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 2 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.