Google's Carbon reportedly beats Opus 5.5 at 250% lower cost, but 3x slower
melvinjohnsonp · x · 2026-11-11
Per an unverified hands-on report from developer melvinjohnsonp, Google's new Carbon model looks like a serious contender:
- Outperforms Anthropic's Opus 5.5 at a frontier-class level, reportedly without benchmark gaming
- Priced 250% cheaper than Opus and 500% cheaper than Fable
- Actually works in real-world use
The main drawback is speed: roughly 3x slower than Opus even at low effort. The author argues that if Google fixes the speed gap while keeping the discount, it could overtake Anthropic.
Related event: Reported Google Carbon Beats Opus at 250% Cheaper, but 3x Slower(2 posts)→
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