Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MAI-Code-1.1-Flash: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is developed by Anthropic, while MAI-Code-1.1-Flash comes from Microsoft. MAI-Code-1.1-Flash was released in August 2026, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 followed a month later in September 2026. MAI-Code-1.1-Flash has a published size of about 138 billion parameters; Anthropic has not disclosed the parameter count of Claude Sonnet 5.5.
We have 47 benchmark results for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 2 benchmark results for MAI-Code-1.1-Flash, but they were measured on different benchmarks, so there is no like-for-like scoreboard.
MAI-Code-1.1-Flash is the cheaper API at $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, roughly 10 times cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5.5 at $2 and $10. Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 256K for MAI-Code-1.1-Flash. Both accept text and images as input. On tooling, only Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports function calling and only Claude Sonnet 5.5 offers structured output.
| Characteristic | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MAI-Code-1.1-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | Microsoft |
| Release Date | September 28, 2026 | August 11, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | 138B |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 256K |
| Context (output) | 128K | — |
| Input Price / 1M | $2.00 | $0.20 |
| Output Price / 1M | $10.00 | $1.20 |
| Average Score | 67.4% | 67.8% |
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Claude Sonnet 5.5 — 0.7, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash — 0.7.
MAI-Code-1.1-Flash is 8.6x cheaper: input $0.20/1M vs $2.00/1M tokens.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports a larger context: 1M vs 256K tokens.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is newer: released 9/28/2026 vs 8/11/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MAI-Code-1.1-Flash?
Which model is cheaper — Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MAI-Code-1.1-Flash?
Which has a larger context window — Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MAI-Code-1.1-Flash?
The Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MAI-Code-1.1-Flash comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MAI-Code-1.1-Flash page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.