Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.6: pricing and benchmarks
Both charge $2.00 per 1M input tokens. Grok 4.6 is 40% cheaper on output tokens ($6.00 vs $10.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Grok 4.6 costs $980.00 a month versus $1,100 for Claude Sonnet 5.5, 11% less. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 164.4 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 156.3 for Grok 4.6.
Which should you choose?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 164.4 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 156.3 for Grok 4.6.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 88.8% on FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3) vs 66.0% for Grok 4.6.
Grok 4.6 costs $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5, 25% less.
A trade-off: Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 8.1 ECI points more capable but costs 1.3x as much as Grok 4.6.
Pricing and specs
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Grok 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | xAI |
| API model ID | claude-sonnet-5-5 | grok-4.6 |
| Input / 1M tokens | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.20 | $0.50 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $10.00 | $6.00 |
| Long-context rates | — | $4.00 in / $12.00 out above 200K prompt tokens |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 500K tokens |
| Max output | 128K tokens | — |
| Batch discount | 50% off | — |
Benchmarks
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Grok 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 164.4 | 156.3 |
| GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning | 95.6% | 94.0% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math | 88.8% | 66.0% |
| SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy | 46.5% | 49.3% |
| ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning | — | 67.1% |
| DeepSWE· Coding | — | 67.5% |
| APEX-Agents· Agentic work | 75.5% | 65.3% |
Source: Epoch AI, best recorded result per model (CC BY 4.0). A dash means no published score. See all benchmarks
Monthly cost for real workloads
| Workload | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Grok 4.6 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Support chatbot 100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each. | $700.00 | $540.00 | Grok 4.6 23% cheaper |
Document Q&A (RAG) 50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each. | $1,100 | $980.00 | Grok 4.6 11% cheaper |
Coding agent 10,000 agent steps a month, ~40,000 input tokens each (70% read from the prompt cache) and ~2,000 output tokens. | $496.00 | $500.00 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 1% cheaper |
Cached chatbot The same 100,000-reply support chatbot, but 60% of each prompt (system prompt + conversation history) is served from the prompt cache. | $538.00 | $405.00 | Grok 4.6 25% cheaper |
Meeting notes 10,000 meetings a month summarized from ~12,000-token transcripts, ~1,000 output tokens each. | $340.00 | $300.00 | Grok 4.6 12% cheaper |
Bulk translation 200,000 short translations a month, ~800 input and ~800 output tokens each. | $1,920 | $1,280 | Grok 4.6 33% cheaper |
Content moderation 1,000,000 classifications a month, ~400 input tokens and ~80 output tokens each. | $1,600 | $1,280 | Grok 4.6 20% cheaper |
Article drafting 300 long-form articles a month written from a ~4,000-token brief and outline, ~5,000 output tokens each. | $17.40 | $11.40 | Grok 4.6 34% cheaper |
Code review bot 30,000 pull-request reviews a month, ~5,000 input tokens each (30% cached repository context) and ~700 output tokens. | $429.00 | $358.50 | Grok 4.6 16% cheaper |
Invoice extraction 100,000 documents a month parsed into structured JSON, ~1,200 input and ~250 output tokens each. | $490.00 | $390.00 | Grok 4.6 20% cheaper |
Estimates use standard list prices and ignore cache-write surcharges. Different tokenizers can count the same text differently, so test with your own prompts.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.6 cost calculator
- $980.00/mo$0.02 / req
- Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$1,100/mo$0.02 / req
Standard-tier list prices. Long-context rates apply automatically where the provider publishes a threshold. Excludes cache-write surcharges, taxes, batch and volume discounts.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 pricing notes
Anthropic’s fast mid-tier model, successor to Claude Sonnet 5 at the same price.
- Cache writes cost $2.50 (5-minute cache) or $4 (1-hour cache) per 1M tokens.
- US-only inference (inference_geo: "us") costs 1.1x.
Grok 4.6 pricing notes
xAI’s flagship model for code and everything else, with agentic tool calling and configurable reasoning.
- Requests with 200K or more prompt tokens are billed at $4 input / $1 cached / $12 output for all tokens.
- Web Search costs $5 per 1,000 calls; X Search is billed per item fetched, at $5 per 1,000 posts and $10 per 1,000 user profiles.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 cheaper than Grok 4.6?
- Both charge $2.00 per 1M input tokens. Grok 4.6 is 40% cheaper on output tokens ($6.00 vs $10.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Grok 4.6 costs $980.00 a month versus $1,100 for Claude Sonnet 5.5, 11% less.
- Which is more capable, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Grok 4.6?
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 164.4 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 156.3 for Grok 4.6.
- How much does Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost per 1M tokens?
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.20 per 1M cached input tokens on Anthropic’s standard tier.
- How much does Grok 4.6 cost per 1M tokens?
- Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.50 per 1M cached input tokens on xAI’s standard tier.
- Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Grok 4.6?
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 has the larger context window: 1M tokens versus 500K for Grok 4.6.