Claude Sonnet 5 (High) vs Grok 4.3 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (High) 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 Sonnet 5 (High) scores 6.8 points higher (31.7 vs 24.9) but costs 5.7× as much to run the benchmark ($2086 vs $363; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (High) when you need intelligence above 24.9, and Grok 4.3 (High) when 24.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (High) | Grok 4.3 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 31.7 | 24.9 | −21.5% Grok 4.3 (High) is 21.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,086.04 | $363.24 | −82.6% Grok 4.3 (High) is 82.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.10s | 24.88s | +64.8% Grok 4.3 (High) is 64.8% 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 (High): 21.5% less intelligence, 82.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 64.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- 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 (High)Grok 4.3 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-high/grok-4-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-high/grok-4-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill