Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Grok 4.3 (Comparative Analysis)
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Comparative Analysis: Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs. Grok 4.3
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Overview
Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released 2 months before Grok 4.3.
 Claude Sonnet 4.6 |  Grok 4.3 | |
|---|---|---|
Model Provider The organization behind this AI's development | Anthropic | XAI |
Input Context Window Maximum input tokens this model can process at once | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
Output Token Limit Maximum output tokens this model can generate at once | 128K tokens | Not specified tokens |
Release Date When this model first became publicly available | February 17, 2026 5 months ago February 17th, 2026 | April 30, 2026 2 months ago April 30th, 2026 |
Capabilities & Features
Compare supported features, modalities, and advanced capabilities
Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Grok 4.3 | |
|---|---|---|
Input Types Supported input formats | 📝Text🖼️Image📁File | 📝Text🖼️Image📁File |
Reasoning Controls Defaults and configurable reasoning effort | OptionalEffort: Max, High, Medium, LowDefault: Medium | Enabled by defaultEffort: High, Medium, Low, NoneDefault: Low |
Output Types Supported output formats | 📝Text | 📝Text |
Tokenizer Text encoding system | Claude | Grok |
Key Features Advanced capabilities | ✓Function Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning Mode✓Content Moderation | ✓Function Calling✓Structured Output✓Reasoning ModeContent Moderation |
Pricing
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is roughly 2.4x more expensive compared to Grok 4.3 for input tokens and roughly 6.0x more expensive for output tokens.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Grok 4.3 | |
|---|---|---|
Short Context Pricing Base rates before a long-context threshold applies | ||
Input Token Cost Cost per million input tokens | $3.00 per million tokens | $1.25 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Cost per million output tokens | $15.00 per million tokens | $2.50 per million tokens |
Web Search Cost Additional cost for each web search operation | $0.01 per search | $0.005 per search |
Cache Read Cost Cost to reuse cached input tokens | $0.30 per million tokens | $0.20 per million tokens |
Cache Write Cost Cost to write input tokens to the cache | $3.75 per million tokens | Not specified |
1-Hour Cache Write Cost Cost to cache input tokens for one hour | $6.00 per million tokens | Not specified |
Long Context Pricing Rates for prompts with 200,000 or more tokens | ||
Input Token Cost Long-context input cost per million tokens | Not specified | $2.50 per million tokens |
Output Token Cost Long-context output cost per million tokens | Not specified | $5.00 per million tokens |
Cache Read Cost Long-context cache read cost per million tokens | Not specified | $0.40 per million tokens |
Benchmarks
Compare relevant benchmarks between Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Grok 4.3.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Grok 4.3 | |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Overall model quality across independent evaluations | 47.2 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | 37.6 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) |
Coding Index Programming performance across independent evaluations | 63 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | 42.2 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) |
Agentic Index Ability to complete multi-step agentic tasks | 40.8 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) | 24.1 (Artificial Analysis index; higher is better) |
Best Design Arena Score Highest human-preference Elo score across design arenas | 1,315 Elo (#12 in Game Dev (60.2% win rate)) | 1,235 Elo (#38 in Game Dev (49.5% win rate)) |
At a Glance
Quick overview of what makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Grok 4.3 unique.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic understands both text and images, can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 1M token context window. Premium pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output tokens. Includes built-in content moderation for safer outputs. Released February 17th, 2026.Grok 4.3 by XAI understands both text and images, can use external tools and APIs, offers advanced reasoning, generates structured data. It can handle standard conversations with its 1M token context window. Reasonably priced at $1.25/M input and $2.50/M output tokens. Released April 30th, 2026.Explore More Comparisons
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