Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5
At a Glance
| Compare | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | Grok 4.5xAI |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5 | #26 of 4660.1 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 40.0–73.4 | #25 of 4660.1 score · 3/3 sources · complete |
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | #29 of 44$0.194 per LiveBench case | #15 of 44$0.063 per LiveBench case |
| EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5 | #30 of 3847.4 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 37.4–54.0 | #11 of 3859.2 score · 3/3 sources · complete |
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $2.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $2.00Xai ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $10.00Anthropic ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 | $6.00Xai ↗ · Sep 3, 2026 |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 1,000K | 500K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → | Sep 3, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Agent Arenaagent-2026-09-15-d25aabda0010 · outcome_score · leader | 5.97100% of row best · score · Claude Sonnet 5 (High); 95% CI [4.35064977, 7.58850066]; sessions 30631; observations 3176952; rank 9 | 2.9297% of row best · score · Grok 4.5; 95% CI [1.93207740, 3.90928463]; sessions 38146; observations 1942877; rank 19 |
| LMArena Document Arenadocument-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,466.14100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1458.49407458, 1473.77896309]; votes 7411; rank 17 | 1,451.9699% of row best · rating · grok-4.5; 95% CI [1443.26182849, 1460.65626012]; votes 4965; rank 26 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,442.1599% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1437.57467941, 1446.71829948]; votes 35301; rank 62 | 1,450.13100% of row best · rating · grok-4.5; 95% CI [1445.44268767, 1454.81726995]; votes 30103; rank 45 |
| LMArena Vision Arenavision-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,277.1699% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1269.57643110, 1284.74576666]; votes 10289; rank 32 | 1,288.54100% of row best · rating · grok-4.5; 95% CI [1280.47745270, 1296.60872281]; votes 8355; rank 24 |
| LiveBench2026-06-25 · overall · statistical tie | 80.01100% of row best · percent · claude-sonnet-5-xhigh-effort · 19,428 output tokens / case | 80.01100% of row best · percent · grok-4.5 · 10,517 output tokens / case |
| ToneBench2026-09-11-10-task-4ef099199c9c · overall_score · unverified | 86.51100% of row best · points · Claude Sonnet 5 (max effort) · 71,003 output tokens / case | 82.2395% of row best · points · Grok 4.5 · 2,688 output tokens / case |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above · 4 ties | 1 benchmark winNo overall winner | 0 benchmark winsNo overall winner |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | xAI |
| Family | Claude 5 | Grok 4 |
| Model | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.5 |
| Version | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.5 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-06-30 | 2026-07-16 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000K | 500K |
| Total parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | Unknown | Unknown |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Provider access | Anthropic (Standard), Deepinfra (Standard), Openrouter (Standard) | Xai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools |
Claude Sonnet 5 Capabilities
Grok 4.5 Capabilities
Related Comparisons
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|---|---|---|---|
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5 FAQs
Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.5, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.00 and Grok 4.5 is $2.00 per million tokens, so they are tied on this metric. Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.00 and Grok 4.5 is $6.00 per million tokens, so Grok 4.5 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?+
Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Sonnet 5 supports 1,000K and Grok 4.5 supports 500K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: An overall winner requires at least two decisive benchmarks from at least two original publishers.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Sonnet 5 is not marked open weight; Grok 4.5 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.5 understand images?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is documented with image input; Grok 4.5 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Sonnet 5 is 128K and Grok 4.5 is —.
Do Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.5 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Sonnet 5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Grok 4.5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?+
Claude Sonnet 5 has 3 sourced provider routes; Grok 4.5 has 1, so Claude Sonnet 5 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.