Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Grok 4.6 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.6 (Low) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… scores 16.8 points higher (51.9 vs 35.1) but costs 3.5× as much to run the benchmark ($2177 vs $614; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when you need intelligence above 35.1, and Grok 4.6 (Low) when 35.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Grok 4.6 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.9 | 35.1 | −32.4% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 32.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,176.82 | $613.92 | −71.8% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 71.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.91s | 13.25s | −60.9% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 60.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Low) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 32.4% less intelligence, 71.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 60.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Grok 4.6 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Grok 4.6 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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