Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Grok 4.6 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Grok 4.6 (Low) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 3.1 points higher (38.2 vs 35.1) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $614; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 35.1, and Grok 4.6 (Low) when 35.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Grok 4.6 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 35.1 | −8.1% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 8.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $613.92 | −91.2% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 91.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 190.29s | 13.64s | −92.8% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 92.8% 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 (Max): 8.1% less intelligence, 91.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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 (Max)Grok 4.6 (Low)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/grok-4-6-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/grok-4-6-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill