Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Terra for CV writing

The verdict

Effectively a dead heat: 9391

Same 12 CV writing tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Claude Opus 4.8 took 5 tasks, GPT-5.6 Terra took 1, 6 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Profile without the wallpaper

Write a CV personal profile (max 50 words) for a supermarket shift manager: 6 years in post, runs a team of 12, cut waste 15%, trained 4 supervisors. Banned words: 'hard-working', 'team player', 'passionate', 'results-driven'. Every sentence must contain a fact.

Experienced supermarket shift manager with 6 years in post, leading a team of 12. Reduced waste by 15% through improved stock control. Trained 4 supervisors to full competency. Seeking a role where operational expertise and proven staff development skills deliver measurable store performance.
Supermarket Shift Manager with six years’ experience leading a 12-person team across daily store operations. Reduced waste by 15% and trained four supervisors in scheduling, stock control and customer service.

Task by task

TaskClaude Opus 4.8GPT-5.6 Terra
Profile that mirrors the ad109
Untangle the dates98
Duties into achievements109
Thirty years onto two pages1010
Profile without the wallpaper810
First CV, empty history109
Back after eight years1010
Do the hobbies earn their line?88
Fix the format98
The Excel question99
Strip the header99
Refuse the invented job1010

Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.8, GPT-5.6 Terra · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5

Questions people ask

Which is better for CV writing: Claude Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.6 Terra?

Effectively a dead heat: Claude Opus 4.8 edged it 93/100 to 91/100 on our CV writing suite — too close to matter, so pick on price or the product you already use.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published CV writing tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.

More CV writing head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.3-Codex · GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Terra · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8

Full ranking: Best AI for CV writing · model pages: Claude Opus 4.8, GPT-5.6 Terra