Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Grok 4.3 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 31.1 points higher (56.0 vs 24.9) but costs 20× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $363; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 24.9, and Grok 4.3 (High) when 24.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Grok 4.3 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 24.9 | −55.5% Grok 4.3 (High) is 55.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $363.24 | −95.0% Grok 4.3 (High) is 95.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 367.63s | 27.84s | −92.4% Grok 4.3 (High) is 92.4% faster |
| 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 (Max, Default Fallback): 55.5% less intelligence, 95.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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 (Max, Default Fallback)Grok 4.3 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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