Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Grok 4.3 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac… scores 11.0 points higher (35.9 vs 24.9) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($482 vs $363; both mid-range class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Grok 4.3 (High).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Grok 4.3 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 35.9 | 24.9 | −30.6% Grok 4.3 (High) is 30.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $482.13 | $363.24 | −24.7% Grok 4.3 (High) is 24.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.94s | 28.87s | +386.0% Grok 4.3 (High) is 386.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $1.25 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.3 (High) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 30.6% less intelligence, 24.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 386.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- 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 Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Grok 4.3 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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