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OpenAI · Flagships Analysis

GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026)

Intelligence, Performance & Price Analysis

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Canonical slug: gpt-5-5-instant-05-26 · Canonical model registry at build time

Intelligence

34 score

Input Price

$5.00 / 1M tokens

Output Price

$30.00 / 1M tokens

Executive Assessment

Routing Verdict & Tradeoffs

Ethen Routing Verdict

Frontier research / complex reasoning

GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) scores 34 (estimated) on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it above average among other reasoning models in a similar price tier (median: 28). GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) costs $5.00 per 1M input tokens (at the higher end, median: $1.50) and $30.00 per 1M output tokens (at the higher end, median: $8.40), based on OpenAI's API.

Reserve this model for the hardest requests; simpler or repetitive work should stay on cheaper routes.

Task Fit Assessment

WorkloadRatingNotes
Complex reasoning & agentic workflowsoptimalIntelligence score 34 places this model among top performers. Suitable for multi-step analysis and agentic loops.
Cost-sensitive pipelinesviableOutput pricing at $30.00 is premium. Route high-volume simple tasks to cheaper alternatives.

Cost Pressure Analysis

High

Pricing is premium — input $5.00, output $30.00. This model is expensive for high-volume or output-heavy workloads.

Cheaper substitutes: Lower-cost models for repetitive or high-volume work, Cache-backed reuse for repeated prompts

Technical Specifications

Architecture and Limits

SpecificationValueValidation Authority
Model typeProprietaryinferred
ReasoningYesfaq
Input modalitiesGPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) supports text and image input.faq
Output modalitiesGPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) supports text output.faq
Context window400k tokensfaq
Open weights / sourceNo, GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) is proprietary. The model weights are not publicly available.faq
ParametersGPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) is a proprietary model and OpenAI has not disclosed the model size or parameter count.faq
Knowledge cutoffGPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) has a knowledge cutoff of August 2025. The model's training data includes information up to this date.faq
API availabilityYes, GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) is available via API through 1 provider.faq

Evidence charts

Profile visualizations

Charts are the same canonical evidence cards previously published for this slug, contained inside the D18D page grammar.

AA-Omniscience Index

AA-Omniscience Index (higher is better) measures knowledge reliability and hallucination. It rewards correct answers, penalizes hallucinations, and has no penalty for refusing to answer. Scores range from -100 to 100, where 0 means as many correct as incorrect answers, and negative scores mean more incorrect than correct. · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

0204060Claude Fable 5 (with fallback): 4040AClaude Fable 5 (with fal…Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 3333GGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewClaude Opus 4.8 (max): 2727AClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Claude Opus 4.7 (max): 2626AClaude Opus 4.7 (max)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 2323GGemini 3.5 FlashGPT-5.5 (xhigh): 2020AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)GPT-5.5 (high): 1818AIGPT-5.5 (high)Grok 4.3 (high): 1818xGrok 4.3 (high)GPT-5.5 (medium): 1717AIGPT-5.5 (medium)Claude Sonnet 5 (max): 1515AClaude Sonnet 5 (max)

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index by Open Weights / Proprietary

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1 incorporates 9 evaluations: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

0204060Claude Fable 5 (with fallback): 6060AClaude Fable 5 (with fal…Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 5656AClaude Opus 4.8 (max)GPT-5.5 (xhigh): 5555AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)Claude Opus 4.7 (max): 5454AClaude Opus 4.7 (max)Claude Sonnet 5 (max): 5353AClaude Sonnet 5 (max)GPT-5.5 (high): 5353AIGPT-5.5 (high)GPT-5.4 (xhigh): 5151AIGPT-5.4 (xhigh)GLM-5.2 (max): 5151?GLM-5.2 (max)GPT-5.5 (medium): 5050AIGPT-5.5 (medium)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 5050GGemini 3.5 Flash

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1 incorporates 9 evaluations: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

0204060Claude Fable 5 (with fallback): 6060AClaude Fable 5 (with fal…Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 5656AClaude Opus 4.8 (max)GPT-5.5 (xhigh): 5555AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)Claude Opus 4.7 (max): 5454AClaude Opus 4.7 (max)Claude Sonnet 5 (max): 5353AClaude Sonnet 5 (max)GPT-5.5 (high): 5353AIGPT-5.5 (high)GPT-5.4 (xhigh): 5151AIGPT-5.4 (xhigh)GLM-5.2 (max): 5151?GLM-5.2 (max)GPT-5.5 (medium): 5050AIGPT-5.5 (medium)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 5050GGemini 3.5 Flash

Intelligence

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Higher is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

0204060Claude Fable 5 (with fallback): 6060AClaude Fable 5 (with fal…GPT-5.5 (xhigh): 5555AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)GLM-5.2 (max): 5151?GLM-5.2 (max)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 5050GGemini 3.5 FlashMiniMax-M3: 4444?MiniMax-M3DeepSeek V4 Pro (max): 4444DDeepSeek V4 Pro (max)Kimi K2.6: 4444KKimi K2.6Muse Spark: 4343?Muse SparkNemotron 3 Ultra: 3838NNemotron 3 UltraGrok 4.3 (high): 3838xGrok 4.3 (high)

Speed

Output tokens per second · Higher is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

088175263350gpt-oss-120b (high): 314314AIgpt-oss-120b (high)Nemotron 3 Ultra: 250250NNemotron 3 UltraGLM-5.2 (max): 218218?GLM-5.2 (max)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 192192GGemini 3.5 FlashGrok 4.3 (high): 164164xGrok 4.3 (high)MiniMax-M3: 9999?MiniMax-M3GPT-5.5 (xhigh): 8888AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)Kimi K2.6: 7676KKimi K2.6DeepSeek V4 Pro (max): 7272DDeepSeek V4 Pro (max)Claude Fable 5 (with fallback): 7171AClaude Fable 5 (with fal…

Context Window

Context window: tokens limit · Higher is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

0500k1M1.5M2MGPT-5.4 (xhigh): 1.1M1.1MAIGPT-5.4 (xhigh)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 1M1MGGemini 3.5 FlashClaude Fable 5 (with fallback): 1M1MAClaude Fable 5 (with fal…GLM-5.2 (max): 1M1M?GLM-5.2 (max)DeepSeek V4 Pro (max): 1M1MDDeepSeek V4 Pro (max)Grok 4.3 (high): 1M1MxGrok 4.3 (high)MiniMax-M3: 1M1M?MiniMax-M3Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 1M1MAClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Claude Opus 4.7 (max): 1M1MAClaude Opus 4.7 (max)Claude Sonnet 5 (max): 1M1MAClaude Sonnet 5 (max)

Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Weighted average cost (USD) per Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index task, segmented by token type. Lower is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

00.51GPT-5.5 (xhigh): 0.10.1AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)Claude Sonnet 4.6 (max): 0.10.1AClaude Sonnet 4.6 (max)GPT-5.5 (high): 0.10.1AIGPT-5.5 (high)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 0.10.1GGemini 3.5 FlashGPT-5.5 (medium): 0.10.1AIGPT-5.5 (medium)GPT-5.4 (xhigh): 0.10.1AIGPT-5.4 (xhigh)GPT-5.5 (low): 00AIGPT-5.5 (low)GLM-5.1: 00?GLM-5.1Qwen3.7 Max: 00QQwen3.7 MaxGemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 00GGemini 3.1 Pro Preview

Cost per Task

Weighted average cost (USD) per Intelligence Index task · Lower is better · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

$0.00$1.00$2.00$3.00$4.00$5.00Claude Fable 5 (with fallback): $2.75$2.75AClaude Fable 5 (with fal…GPT-5.5 (xhigh): $0.86$0.86AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)Gemini 3.5 Flash: $0.59$0.59GGemini 3.5 FlashGLM-5.2 (max): $0.37$0.37?GLM-5.2 (max)Kimi K2.6: $0.35$0.35KKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 Ultra: $0.24$0.24NNemotron 3 UltraGrok 4.3 (high): $0.14$0.14xGrok 4.3 (high)MiniMax-M3: $0.12$0.12?MiniMax-M3gpt-oss-120b (high): $0.06$0.06AIgpt-oss-120b (high)DeepSeek V4 Pro (max): $0.04$0.04DDeepSeek V4 Pro (max)

Cost to Run Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Cost (USD) to run all evaluations in the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

050100150Claude Sonnet 4.6 (max): 149149AClaude Sonnet 4.6 (max)GPT-5.5 (xhigh): 132132AIGPT-5.5 (xhigh)GPT-5.5 (high): 119119AIGPT-5.5 (high)Gemini 3.5 Flash: 114114GGemini 3.5 FlashGPT-5.5 (medium): 9999AIGPT-5.5 (medium)GPT-5.4 (xhigh): 8989AIGPT-5.4 (xhigh)GPT-5.5 (low): 6565AIGPT-5.5 (low)Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 4949GGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewQwen3.7 Max: 4848QQwen3.7 MaxGLM-5.1: 4040?GLM-5.1

Pricing: Cache Hit, Input, and Output

Price (USD per M Tokens) · Evaluation results measured independently by Artificial Analysis

Retrieved 2026-07-08

Chart source and provenance are listed in Methodology & sources below.

Retrieval date:
2026-07-08
Methodology:
Independent test run by Artificial Analysis on dedicated hardware.

0250k500k750k1MClaude Opus 4.8 (max): 3131AClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Claude Opus 4.7 (max): 3131AClaude Opus 4.7 (max)Claude Sonnet 4.6 (max): 1818AClaude Sonnet 4.6 (max)GPT-5.4 (xhigh): 1818AIGPT-5.4 (xhigh)Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 1414GGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewClaude Sonnet 5 (max): 1212AClaude Sonnet 5 (max)Claude Sonnet 5 (Non-reasoning): 1212AClaude Sonnet 5 (Non-rea…Gemini 3.5 Flash: 1111GGemini 3.5 FlashQwen3.7 Max: 1010QQwen3.7 MaxGLM-5.2 (max): 6.16.1?GLM-5.2 (max)cache Hitinputoutput

Methodology

Methodology & Provenance

This page is rendered from the normalized profile and page JSON for GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026).

Benchmark values are preserved as normalized; only layout, disclosure ordering, and typography are adjusted for readability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Model FAQs & Technical Disclosures

GPT-5.5 Instant (May 2026) was released on May 5, 2026.

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