Model Comparison
Claude Opus 5.5 vs Muse Wonder
Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) leads Muse Wonder (max) by 780 Elo, and their 95% ranges sit 675 Elo apart. Even Claude Opus 5.5's lowest-rated configuration, Claude Opus 5.5 (low), ranks above Muse Wonder (max). Among 80 models, each ranked by its best configuration, Claude Opus 5.5 is #1 and Muse Wonder is #16. Cost per script: $1.00 for Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) and $0.309 for Muse Wonder (max).
Last updated , from board data generated at 20:08 UTC.
Picks and Verdict
Ranks in the picks and verdict are configuration ranks: each setting's place among all 132 configurations. The cards above give each model's rank.
PickClaude Opus 5.5
Claude Opus 5.5 (low)
Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (low) in place of Muse Wonder, since it costs less at $0.243 a script, ranks 482 Elo above Muse's best, and the board can't separate it from medium or high.
PickMuse Wonder
Muse Wonder (max)
Pick Muse Wonder (max) only if Claude isn't an option for you, since it stays within half a point of Opus at low, medium and high on substance for $0.309 a script.
Muse Wonder (max) and Claude Opus 5.5 (medium) cost $0.309 and $0.310 a script, both finish in about two minutes, and Opus sits 503 Elo higher with 95% ranges far apart. Claude Opus 5.5 is the #1 model of 80 and Muse Wonder the #16 model, each ranked by its best setting, and every Opus setting beats every Muse setting on all nine metrics and all ten scripts. Claude Opus 5.5 (low) costs less than Muse's best, at $0.243, and still leads it by 482 Elo. The closest Muse gets is substance, 0.3 points behind Opus at medium. On Muse, max is the only setting worth running: it adds 341 Elo over high, mostly by landing the requested length, and the board can't separate high from adaptive. On Opus, low, medium and high overlap, and the step that counts is xhigh, #1 on the board at 2785. Max effort, #2 at 2783, overlaps it, so the board can't separate the two, and it costs $2.58 against $1.00. I'd run Opus at low or medium in place of Muse, and xhigh for the script I record.
Disclosure: Claude Opus 5.5 comes from the same lab as one of the four judges, Claude Opus 5.5. The other three sit outside its lab, so it is never scored by its own lab alone (how the panel works). The judge analysis measures how much each judge favors its own lab.
How to Read the Writing Score, Writing Elo and 95% Ranges
Writing Score and Writing Elo. The Writing Score (0 to 100) is the weighted average of the nine metric scores: seven from the judges, Length Adherence from code and the Slop Score half from each. The Writing Elo is a rating from pairwise comparisons: on each script, each configuration's average across its drafts is compared with every other configuration's, and gaps within the draft-to-draft variation count as draws. Elo rewards winning often, so the two can put configurations in a different order.
Elo ranges. Each 95% range shows how far a configuration's Elo could move if the drafts had come out slightly differently. It comes from resampling every configuration's recorded draft scores on each reference script and ranking again. Comparing two separate ranges does not test the Elo gap between them: ranges far apart are strong evidence for the order, and overlapping ranges do not mean a tie. The reference scripts stay fixed, so the ranges say nothing about new scripts. The methodology page has the full description.
All Thinking Levels of Both Models
Every ranked configuration of Claude Opus 5.5 and Muse Wonder, scored on the same 10 scripts by the same four judges.
- Each row is one configuration: the model at one thinking level. The dot is its Writing Elo, a rating from pairwise comparisons of the scores on each script, and the bar is its 95% range: how far that Elo could move if the drafts had come out slightly differently.
- When two bars overlap, the board cannot order those two configurations. Bars far apart are strong evidence for the order.
- The table under the chart lists the same configurations in the same order and adds the Writing Score (the 0 to 100 consensus of the judges and code), cost, time and configuration rank (the place among all configurations on the board).
Shaded rows are the configurations chosen for the metric comparison below.
| Configuration | Writing Elo | 95% Range | Writing Score | Cost / Script | Time / Script | Reasoning Tokens | Configuration Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) | 2785 | 2719 to 2850 | 85.8 | $1.00 | 6.7 min | N/A | #1 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) | 2783 | 2727 to 2840 | 85.9 | $2.58 | 17.5 min | N/A | #2 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (high) | 2530 | 2481 to 2565 | 84.6 | $0.328 | 2.1 min | N/A | #5 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (medium) | 2508 | 2449 to 2568 | 84.5 | $0.310 | 1.9 min | N/A | #6 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (low) | 2487 | 2429 to 2529 | 84.3 | $0.243 | 1.5 min | N/A | #7 |
| Muse Wonder (max) | 2005 | 1959 to 2044 | 80.6 | $0.309 | 2.0 min | 9,601 | #31 |
| Muse Wonder (high) | 1664 | 1600 to 1724 | 76.7 | $0.149 | 0.9 min | 1,385 | #58 |
| Muse Wonder (adaptive) | 1604 | 1550 to 1661 | 76.2 | $0.139 | 0.8 min | 766 | #70 |
Cost is one script at the API list price of the route used, uncached and without judging. Time is the average for one accepted script, retries included. N/A under Reasoning Tokens means the board has no separate reasoning count for that route.
Computed Findings Across Thinking Levels
Each finding is computed from the configurations above. Where two 95% ranges overlap, the board cannot order those two configurations.
- Best Configurations Head to Head. Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) leads Muse Wonder (max) by 780 Elo, and their 95% ranges do not overlap (2719 to 2850 against 1959 to 2044), which is strong evidence for that order.
- Every Claude Opus 5.5 Configuration Ranks Higher. All five Claude Opus 5.5 configurations rank above all three Muse Wonder configurations: the lowest-rated, Claude Opus 5.5 (low) at Elo 2487, still beats Muse Wonder (max) at Elo 2005. Their 95% ranges do not overlap.
- Lowest Thinking Levels Head to Head. At their lowest thinking levels, Claude Opus 5.5 (low) at Elo 2487 and $0.243 per script leads Muse Wonder (high) at Elo 1664 and $0.149 per script by 823 Elo. Their 95% ranges do not overlap.
- Same Level Name, Side by Side. Claude Opus 5.5 has the higher Writing Elo at every level name both models use: high and max. The 95% ranges do not overlap at any of them. Level names come from each provider, so the same name does not promise the same reasoning budget.
- Cheapest Claude Opus 5.5 Configuration Above Muse Wonder's Best. The cheapest Claude Opus 5.5 configuration with a higher Writing Elo than Muse Wonder (max), at Elo 2005 and $0.309 per script, is Claude Opus 5.5 (low), at Elo 2487 and $0.243 per script. It costs less than the configuration it beats.
- Lowest to Highest Thinking Level. Claude Opus 5.5 moves +296 Elo from low to max effort, at about 11 times the cost per script. Muse Wonder moves +341 Elo from high to max, at about 2.1 times the cost per script.
Writing Elo at Each Shared Level Name
| Level | Claude Opus 5.5 | Muse Wonder | Gap | 95% Ranges |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | 2530 | 1664 | +866 | Separate |
| max | 2783 | 2005 | +778 | Separate |
Gap is Claude Opus 5.5 minus Muse Wonder at the same level name, using each model's highest-rated configuration at that level.
Two Chosen Configurations Compared
Pick one configuration of each model to compare their metric scores, consistency across drafts and per-script scores. Each menu starts on the model's best configuration.
Scores by Metric
Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) scores higher on all nine metrics. Weighted by each metric's share of the Writing Score, Length Adherence does the most to put Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) ahead, with a 16.1-point lead on that metric. The weight beside each metric is its share of the Writing Score.
Consistency Across Drafts
| Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) | Muse Wonder (max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Score spread across drafts (±) | 1.43 | 1.91 |
| Lowest script score | 84.3 Script 10 | 78.2 Script 10 |
| Highest script score | 87.9 Script 7 | 82.2 Script 5 |
| Range across scripts | 3.6 | 4.0 |
Spread is how much the Writing Score moves between a configuration's drafts, and lower is steadier. Green marks the better number in each row.
Scores by Script
Writing Score on each reference script. Gap is Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) minus Muse Wonder (max), and the higher score is in bold.
| Script | Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) | Muse Wonder (max) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script 1 opinion / warning explainer | 84.4 | 81.3 | +3.1 |
| Script 2 news-analysis / skeptical explainer | 85.6 | 81.7 | +3.9 |
| Script 3 personal roadmap / opinion | 85.7 | 81.3 | +4.4 |
| Script 4 short explainer | 86.2 | 79.5 | +6.7 |
| Script 5 news-analysis / opinion explainer | 85.1 | 82.2 | +2.9 |
| Script 6 founder announcement / personal origin story | 85.6 | 81.3 | +4.3 |
| Script 7 personal technical walkthrough / agentic workflow case study | 87.9 | 78.5 | +9.4 |
| Script 8 product release announcement / personal observation | 85.8 | 82.1 | +3.7 |
| Script 9 career guide / hiring analysis | 87.9 | 79.9 | +8.0 |
| Script 10 engineering process walkthrough / presentation adaptation | 84.3 | 78.2 | +6.1 |
Scorecards and Thinking Pages
Each configuration name in the table above opens its own scorecard.
Compare With Another Model
Pick a second model. A pair with its own written match-up opens that page, and any other pair opens in the comparison tool.
Nearby Match-Ups by Best Writing Elo
Every configuration wrote five drafts for each of the same 10 briefs, from the same prompt. Generation was closed-book, with the prompt as the only source and no web search or other tools. Each judge scores every draft once: Claude Opus 5.5 at medium effort through the Claude Code subscription, GPT-6.1 Sol at medium reasoning through the Codex CLI, GLM 5.3 Flash through OpenRouter, and Jev 1.13, a typed judge from TypeSafe that answers each metric as a multiple-choice question. The channel's finished script is their reference for the voice, and it gets no score on the board itself.
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