Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.6
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Agent Arenaagent-2026-08-31-011508720696 · outcome_score · statistical tie | 7.48100% of row best · score · Claude Sonnet 5 (High); 95% CI [5.31247081, 9.65098366]; sessions 27467; observations 2696236; rank 8 | 5.7698% of row best · score · Grok 4.6 (xHigh); 95% CI [4.47058991, 7.04827601]; sessions 15090; observations 1574671; rank 16 |
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · statistical tie | 1,442.95100% of row best · rating · claude-sonnet-5-high; 95% CI [1438.22001632, 1447.67497803]; votes 31096; rank 56 | 1,443.75100% of row best · rating · grok-4.6-high; 95% CI [1433.62910542, 1453.86294509]; votes 3453; rank 55 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above · 2 ties | 0 benchmark winsTied overall | 0 benchmark winsTied overall |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | xAI |
| Family | Claude 5 | Grok 4 |
| Model | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.6 |
| Version | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.6 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-06-30 | Unknown |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | 2026-02-01 |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 500,000 |
| 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, tools |
13 comparable fields · 6 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Claude Sonnet 5 Capabilities
Grok 4.6 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Mythos 5.1Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Mythos 5.1Anthropic | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
Claude Opus 5Anthropic | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | family variantsimage, text |
| vs | Grok 4.6xAI | family variantsimage, text | |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs |  GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | vs | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 Qwen3.5-35B-A3BQwen | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 Ministral-3-14B-Reasoning-2512Mistral AI | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.6 FAQs
Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.6, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.00 and Grok 4.6 is $2.00 per million tokens, so they are tied on this metric. Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.00 and Grok 4.6 is $6.00 per million tokens, so Grok 4.6 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?+
Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Sonnet 5 supports 1,000,000 and Grok 4.6 supports 500,000.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: Neither model leads outside the score tolerance on the verified common benchmarks.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: unsupported. Claude Sonnet 5 is not marked open weight; Grok 4.6 is not marked open weight.
Can Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.6 understand images?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is documented with image input; Grok 4.6 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Sonnet 5 is 128,000 and Grok 4.6 is —.
Do Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.6 support reasoning and tool use?+
Claude Sonnet 5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Grok 4.6: 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 4.6?+
Claude Sonnet 5 has 3 sourced provider routes; Grok 4.6 has 1, so Claude Sonnet 5 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?+
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.