Six frontier models compared on score, price and agent session cost
The author puts Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6 Astra, Gemini 4 Argon and three other models into one HTML table comparing BenchLM scores, price per million tokens and agent session cost, with Argon estimated at 80.5 (range 70.8–90.3) because its input price is unpublished.
6 frontier models. 1 board. the #1 is not the one you should run all day i put the october top of the leaderboard on one glass desk: BenchLM overall score, list price per 1M tokens, score per dollar and what one agent session actually costs. MODEL ARENA, one html, no keys, no backend the idea: pick a model like you pick a crew. each one has one job meet the crew: 1. CLAUDE OPUS 5.5 · the closer: 85.4, #1 overall · $4 in / $20 out · 1M context · one session (1M in + 200K out) = $8.00 2. GPT-6 ASTRA · the heavyweight: 83.3 · $10 / $50 · 1.05M context · same session = $20.00 · 1.67 points per $ of output 3. CLAUDE SONNET 5.5 · the workhorse: 82.5 · $2 / $10 · 8.25 points per $, best on the board · session = $4.00 4. GPT-6.1 SOL · the twin: 81.6 · same $2 / $10 as Sonnet · 0.9 behind · 8.16 points per $ 5. CLAUDE FABLE 5.1 · the specialist: 81.2 · $10 / $50, Astra-level bill for the #5 score · 1.62 points per $ 6. GEMINI 4 ARGON · the wildcard: 80.5 but estimated, range 70.8–90.3 · $10 out · input price not published the split that matters: two models at $50 output, four at $10–20. the whole board sits inside 4.9 points of score. output price across it spans 5×, $10 → $50 alone each model is a benchmark row. together they're a routing table: closer for the hard merge, workhorse for the 200 small tasks, twin as the fallback, wildcard when the estimate firms up the novelty is not who's #1. the novelty is that #3 does 97% of the #1 score for half the price data: BenchLM frontier top 10 + provider pricing verified 8 oct · list prices, no cache, no batch bookmark this before your agent bill teaches you the same table the hard way edge is open until everyone else stops running the #1 model on every task