Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Grok 4.3 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.3 (High) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 32.7 points higher (57.6 vs 24.9) but costs 24× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $363; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 24.9, and Grok 4.3 (High) when 24.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Grok 4.3 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 24.9 | −56.8% Grok 4.3 (High) is 56.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $363.24 | −95.8% Grok 4.3 (High) is 95.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 24.88s | −96.0% Grok 4.3 (High) is 96.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.25 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.3 (High) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 56.8% less intelligence, 95.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Grok 4.3 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Grok 4.3 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/grok-4-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/grok-4-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill