Claude Sonnet 4 vs Grok 4
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Claude Sonnet 4 specs · Grok 4 specs- PriceTie
Both land near $15.00 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost.
- Context windowGrok 4
Grok 4 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesTie
Both handle text, vision.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Grok 4 edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Claude Sonnet 4's 0. Both land near $15.00 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost. Grok 4 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text, vision), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
Grok 4 is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Claude Sonnet 4, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude Sonnet 4 is usually picked for coding llm and rag workloads, while Grok 4 sees more deployments in reasoning and research agent. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4 | Grok 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | xAI |
| Released | May 2025 | Jul 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $3.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $15.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-03 | 2024-11 |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs $31.50
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs $315
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs $540
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: both models cost about $31.50 a month, call it a tie. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: both models cost about $315 a month, call it a tie. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: both models cost about $540 a month, call it a tie.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Claude Sonnet 4$1.05
- Grok 4$1.05
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- GPQA,87.5
- SWE-bench Verified65.0
Claude Sonnet 4 fits when…
- Solid all-rounder
- Mature deployment ecosystem
Grok 4 fits when…
- Real-time X data access
- Strong on benchmarks at launch
- Less restrictive content policy than peers
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 4 cheaper?
Both Claude Sonnet 4 and Grok 4 are priced equivalently at $15.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens.Which has the larger context window?
Grok 4 accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for Claude Sonnet 4.Is Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 4 better for coding?
Both Claude Sonnet 4 and Grok 4 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Claude Sonnet 4 and Grok 4 released?
Claude Sonnet 4 was released by Anthropic on 2025-05-22. Grok 4 was released by xAI on 2025-07-09.
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