Grok 4.5 (High) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.5 (High) by SpaceXAI or Grok 4.6 (Medium) 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
Grok 4.6 (Medium) scores 4.0 points higher (42.8 vs 38.8) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $1244; both premium class). Pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Grok 4.5 (High).
| Metric | Grok 4.5 (High) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.8 | 42.8 | +10.3% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 10.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,243.85 | $1,557.04 | +25.2% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 25.2% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 18.82s | 31.37s | +66.7% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 66.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs Grok 4.5 (High): 10.3% more intelligence, 25.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 66.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Grok 4.6 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Grok 4.5 (High)Grok 4.6 (Medium)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/grok-4-5/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-5/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill