Grok 3 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
Grok 3 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 128K, 2.0× 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 Grok 3's 0. Both land near $15.00 / 1M output tokens, call it a wash on cost. Grok 4 accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× 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 5 months after Grok 3, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Grok 3 is usually picked for chatbots and research agent 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 | Grok 3 | Grok 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | xAI |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Jul 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K 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 | 2024-08 | 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.
- Grok 3$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
Grok 3 fits when…
- Real-time X access
- Reasoning modes
Grok 4 fits when…
- Real-time X data access
- Strong on benchmarks at launch
- Less restrictive content policy than peers
- Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Grok 3.
Consider Grok 2
xAI's first widely-available model, free on X for Premium subscribers and competitive with the GPT-4 mid-tier of its era.
Frequently asked
Is Grok 3 or Grok 4 cheaper?
Both Grok 3 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 128K for Grok 3.Is Grok 3 or Grok 4 better for coding?
Both Grok 3 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 Grok 3 and Grok 4 released?
Grok 3 was released by xAI on 2025-02-17. Grok 4 was released by xAI on 2025-07-09.
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