ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Grok 4.3 vs GPT-5.2

Grok 4.3 comes out ahead, 67 to 62 and 61 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. 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
  2. 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

  3. OpenAI

    GPT-5.2

    Released Dec 11, 2025

    61/100
    • ECI153.5
    • Price$1.75 / $14.00
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.2
01 — Verdict

Grok 4.3 is our pick

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62) and GPT-5.2 (61). It leads on price. GPT-5.2 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-5.2Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.2 153.5 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 · Grok 4.3 149.2
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 $1.56 · GPT-5.2 $4.81 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 4.6 and Grok 4.3Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 · Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · GPT-5.2 400,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4.6 and Grok 4.3Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-5.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Sonnet 4.6Grok 4.3GPT-5.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%817783
Price25%134118
Inputs & features15%808070
Context window10%606044
Overall100%62/10067/10061/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Grok 4.3 vs GPT-5.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Sonnet 4.6AnthropicGrok 4.3xAIGPT-5.2OpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)152.3149.2153.5 (best)
ECI rank#40 of 148#55 of 148#38 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions87.4%88.8%91.4% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—42.8%67.4% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics85.8%93.3%96.1% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues75.2% (best)—73.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions35.5%33.2%37.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$3.00$1.25 (best)$1.75
Output$15.00$2.50 (best)$14.00
Cached input$0.30$0.20$0.175 (best)
Blended (3:1)$6.00$1.56 (best)$4.81
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial xAI APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens (best)400,000 tokens
Max output64,000 tokens30,000 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · maxYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-sonnet-4-6grok-4.3gpt-5.2
API providers41 (best)2721
ReleasedFeb 17, 2026Apr 17, 2026Dec 11, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 31, 2025—Aug 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.

  • Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
  • Grok 4.3$17.50
  • GPT-5.2$45.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Sonnet 4.6, Grok 4.3 or GPT-5.2?

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62) and GPT-5.2 (61). It leads on price. GPT-5.2 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Grok 4.3 or GPT-5.2?

Grok 4.3 is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). GPT-5.2 costs $1.75 input / $14.00 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 $4.81 for GPT-5.2 (3.1× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (3.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-5.2 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.2 153.5 (#38 of 148), Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148) and Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (151.7–155.4 vs 149.6–154.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.2 91.4%, Grok 4.3 88.8%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.2 96.1%, Grok 4.3 93.3%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-5.2 37.1%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%, Grok 4.3 33.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.2 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?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Grok 4.3 have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 400,000 for GPT-5.2. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, GPT-5.2 up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-5.2 accepts text and images. Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Sonnet 4.6, Grok 4.3 and GPT-5.2 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026; GPT-5.2 came out Dec 11, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 31, 2025, GPT-5.2 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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