ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Muse Spark 1.1 vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

Too close to call on our weighted score (Muse Spark 1.1 70, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Muse Spark 1.1

    Released Jul 9, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI154.3
    • Price$1.25 / $4.25
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Muse Spark 1.1

  2. xAI

    Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

    Released Mar 9, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI152.0
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Muse Spark 1.1 70/100, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Muse Spark 1.1 for raw capability and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMuse Spark 1.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Muse Spark 1.1 154.3 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 · Muse Spark 1.1 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMuse Spark 1.1Muse Spark 1.1 1,048,576 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMuse Spark 1.1Muse Spark 1.1: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMuse Spark 1.1Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8481
Price25%3641
Inputs & features15%9080
Context window10%6160
Overall100%70/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Muse Spark 1.1 vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) specifications side by side
SpecificationMuse Spark 1.1MetaGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)154.3 (best)152.0
ECI rank#35 of 148 (best)#41 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—89.3%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—44.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—92.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions57.8% (best)30.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$1.25
Output$4.25$2.50 (best)
Cached input$0.15 (best)$0.20
Blended (3:1)$2.00$1.56 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceOfficial Meta APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesminimal · low · medium · high · xhighYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmuse-spark-1.1grok-4.20-0309-reasoning
API providers13 (best)11
ReleasedJul 9, 2026Mar 9, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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.

  • Muse Spark 1.1$21.00
  • Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Muse Spark 1.1 or Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Muse Spark 1.1 70/100, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Muse Spark 1.1 for raw capability and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Muse Spark 1.1 or Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Muse Spark 1.1 costs $1.25 input / $4.25 output per million tokens (official Meta API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.56 per million tokens for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) versus $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.1 (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Muse Spark 1.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Muse Spark 1.1 154.3 (#35 of 148) and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 (#41 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (152.2–157.1 vs 149.3–154.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: SimpleQA Verified — Muse Spark 1.1 57.8%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 30.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Muse Spark 1.1 and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Muse Spark 1.1 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?

Muse Spark 1.1 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning). Maximum output per response: Muse Spark 1.1 up to 131,072, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Muse Spark 1.1 accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) accepts text, images and PDFs. Muse Spark 1.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Muse Spark 1.1 and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Muse Spark 1.1 is the newest, released Jul 9, 2026. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) came out Mar 9, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons