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Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Of the 5 public leaderboards that rate both, Grok 4.6 scores higher on 4 and Claude Sonnet 5 on 1. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Grok 4.6 is at 60 and Claude Sonnet 5 at 36.7 (out of 100).
Scores as published by each board; table composed September 25, 2026.
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Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | Grok 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,624.2 | 1,538.2 | Grok 4.6 |
| LiveBench global average (0-100) | 78 | 76 | Grok 4.6 |
| SimpleBench AVG@5 % (private set) | 75.9 | 60.6 | Grok 4.6 |
| Vals AI Vals Index accuracy % · weighted finance + coding tasks | 59.2 | 59.6 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Artificial Analysis intelligence index · measured runs only | 44.3 | 38.2 | Grok 4.6 |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
Grok 4.6 at a glance
- Developer
- xAI
- Status
- Live since August 12, 2026
- API price
- $2 input / $6 output per 1M tokens · xAI, grok-4.6
- Context window
- 500K tokens
Live — Aug 12 at $2/$6 per 1M, unchanged from Grok 4.5.
Claude Sonnet 5 at a glance
- Developer
- Anthropic
- Status
- Live since June 30, 2026
- API price
- $2 input / $10 output per 1M tokens · Anthropic, claude-sonnet-5
- Context window
- 1M tokens
Shipped Jun 30.
Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5: quick answers
Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
It depends on what you measure. Of the 5 public leaderboards that rate both, Grok 4.6 scores higher on 4 and Claude Sonnet 5 on 1. Grok 4.6's widest lead is on SimpleBench; Claude Sonnet 5's widest lead is on Vals AI. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Grok 4.6 is at 60 and Claude Sonnet 5 at 36.7 (out of 100).
Which is newer, Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Grok 4.6. It went live on August 12, 2026, 43 days after Claude Sonnet 5 (June 30, 2026).
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Grok 4.6 is cheaper on output; input costs the same. On each vendor's own API, Grok 4.6 is $2 input / $6 output per million tokens and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2 input / $10 output per million tokens. Grok 4.6's rate rises for prompts over 200K tokens. Prices as published in the models.dev catalog, as of 2026-09-25.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5, at 1M tokens against Grok 4.6's 500K, as each vendor lists it.
Who makes Grok 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 5?
Grok 4.6 is from xAI; Claude Sonnet 5 is from Anthropic.
Where do these numbers come from?
Each score is the leaderboard's own published figure, read by ArtificialWatch (table composed September 25, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
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Also: the bench index · API pricing · the wire