GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) by OpenAI or Grok 4.6 (Medium) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (Medium) scores 16.8 points higher (42.8 vs 26.0) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $987; both premium class). Pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026).
| Metric | GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.0 | 42.8 | +64.6% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 64.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $986.85 | $1,557.04 | +57.8% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 57.8% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.20s | 34.18s | +111.0% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 111.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026): 64.6% more intelligence, 57.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 111.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Grok 4.6 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)Grok 4.6 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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