Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Sonnet 5
94
GPT-5.2
78
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-5.2 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Agentic
+26.6 difference
Coding
+1.5 difference
Knowledge
+35.0 difference
Claude Sonnet 5
GPT-5.2
$3 / $15
$1.75 / $14
N/A
73 t/s
N/A
130.34s
1M
400K
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-5.2 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 94 to 78. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 81.8 against 55.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is OSWorld-Verified, 81.2% to 47.3%. GPT-5.2 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Claude Sonnet 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.75 input / $14.00 output per 1M tokens for GPT-5.2. Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 400K for GPT-5.2.
Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 94 to 78. The biggest single separator in this matchup is OSWorld-Verified, where the scores are 81.2% and 47.3%.
GPT-5.2 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 92.4 versus 57.4. Claude Sonnet 5 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
GPT-5.2 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 64.7 versus 63.2. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.8 versus 55.2. Inside this category, OSWorld-Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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