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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6

Grok 4.6 comes out ahead, 65 to 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.6

    Released Aug 12, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context500K
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.6

  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. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Grok 4.6 is our pick

Grok 4.6 is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). It leads on capability and price. Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.6Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 4.6Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4.6Grok 4.6: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.6Claude Sonnet 4.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8681
Price25%2713
Inputs & features15%7080
Context window10%4860
Overall100%65/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.6xAIClaude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)152.3
ECI rank#19 of 148 (best)#40 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions94.0% (best)87.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics66.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.2% (best)85.8%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—75.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions49.3% (best)35.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00 (best)$3.00
Output$6.00 (best)$15.00
Cached input$0.50$0.30 (best)
Blended (3:1)$3.00 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateOver 200K: $4.00 / $12.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window500,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output500,000 tokens (best)64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhighYeslow · medium · high · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.6claude-sonnet-4-6
API providers2941 (best)
ReleasedAug 12, 2026Feb 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffFeb 1, 2026Aug 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 4.6$32.00
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Grok 4.6 is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). It leads on capability and price. Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Grok 4.6 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI 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 $3.00 per million tokens for Grok 4.6 versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 149.6–154.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.6 99.2%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%.

Which is better for coding?

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

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Grok 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026, Claude Sonnet 4.6 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

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