Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) by SpaceXAI or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? 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 (Xhigh) scores 0.5 points higher (44.2 vs 43.7) but costs 1.9× as much to run the benchmark ($2242 vs $1190; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Step 5 Preview.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.2 | 43.7 | −1.1% Step 5 Preview is 1.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,241.91 | $1,190.26 | −46.9% Step 5 Preview is 46.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 34.05s | 12.01s | −64.7% Step 5 Preview is 64.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Grok 4.6 (Xhigh): 1.1% less intelligence, 46.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 64.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)Step 5 PreviewToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-6-xhigh/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-6-xhigh/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill