ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5.4 mini

Grok 4.3 comes out ahead, 67 to 63 and 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.3

  2. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 4.6

    Released Feb 17, 2026

    62/100
    • ECI152.3
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 4.6

  3. OpenAI

    GPT-5.4 mini

    Released Mar 17, 2026

    63/100
    • ECI148.8
    • Price$0.75 / $4.50
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.4 mini
01 — Verdict

Grok 4.3 is our pick

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 · Grok 4.3 149.2 · GPT-5.4 mini 148.8
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 $1.56 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 · GPT-5.4 mini 400,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Claude Sonnet 4.6GPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%778177
Price25%411339
Inputs & features15%808070
Context window10%606044
Overall100%67/10062/10063/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Grok 4.3 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIClaude Sonnet 4.6AnthropicGPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2152.3 (best)148.8
ECI rank#55 of 148#40 of 148 (best)#56 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)87.4%86.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics42.8%—51.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)85.8%88.9%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—75.2%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions33.2%35.5% (best)29.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$3.00$0.75 (best)
Output$2.50 (best)$15.00$4.50
Cached input$0.20$0.30$0.075 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.56 (best)$6.00$1.69
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens (best)400,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens64,000 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high · maxYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.3claude-sonnet-4-6gpt-5.4-mini
API providers2741 (best)29
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Feb 17, 2026Mar 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 31, 2025Aug 31, 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Grok 4.3$17.50
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.3, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5.4 mini?

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-5.4 mini?

Grok 4.3 is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). GPT-5.4 mini costs $0.75 input / $4.50 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.56 per million tokens for Grok 4.3 versus $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.1× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (3.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148), Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148) and GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 (#56 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (149.6–154.7 vs 147.6–150.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%, GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%, Grok 4.3 33.2%, GPT-5.4 mini 29.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3 and GPT-5.4 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 400,000 for GPT-5.4 mini. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000, GPT-5.4 mini up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images. Grok 4.3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Grok 4.3, Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-5.4 mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. GPT-5.4 mini came out Mar 17, 2026; Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 31, 2025, GPT-5.4 mini Aug 31, 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons