Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 comes out ahead, 72 to 65 on our weighted score, though Grok 4.6 is 25% cheaper per token.
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5.5
72/100- ECI165.2
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is our pick
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Grok 4.6 (65). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Grok 4.6 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 165.2 · Grok 4.6 156.6
- Lowest priceGrok 4.6Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Sonnet 5.5Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 5.5Grok 4.6: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 97 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 21 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 72/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.6xAI | Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 | 165.2 (best) |
| ECI rank | #19 of 148 | #3 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.0% | 95.6% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% | 88.8% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.2% | 100% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 49.3% (best) | 46.5% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $10.00 |
| Cached input | $0.50 | $0.20 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $4.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 500,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | grok-4.6 | claude-sonnet-5-5 |
| API providers | 29 (best) | 23 |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Sep 28, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 1, 2026 | Jun 2026 |
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 5.5$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5.5?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Grok 4.6 (65). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Grok 4.6 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5.5?
Grok 4.6 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 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 $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 165.2 (#3 of 148) and Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (161.8–169.4 vs 154.7–158.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 5.5 95.6%, Grok 4.6 94.0%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Grok 4.6 66.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, Grok 4.6 99.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5.5 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 5.5 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 5.5 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 5.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Grok 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the newest, released Sep 28, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Jun 2026.
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.
