Claude Haiku 4.5 Max vs Grok 3 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Haiku 4.5 Max and Grok 3 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Haiku 4.5 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Grok 3 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max is a multimodal model from Anthropic. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $15.98 per million input tokens and $80.37 per million output tokens, and averages 83.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $15.98 / 1M
- Output
- $80.37 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 83.8
- Open weights
- No
Grok 3 Reasoning
Grok 3 Reasoning is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $16.07 per million input tokens and $74.65 per million output tokens, and averages 82.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.07 / 1M
- Output
- $74.65 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 82.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max | Grok 3 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $15.98 | $16.07 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $80.37 | $74.65 | B |
| Context window | 200,000 | 200,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 4,096 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 83.8 | 82.9 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1452.0 | 1448.0 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max wins 7, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 2, and 3 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max | Grok 3 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.6 | 84.5 | 2.1 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.3 | 77.3 | 3.0 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.0 | 74.0 | 0.0 | Tie |
| HumanEval | 88.5 | 88.5 | 0.0 | Tie |
| MATH-500 | 88.7 | 90.2 | 1.5 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| AIME 2025 | 78.2 | 78.2 | 0.0 | Tie |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.2 | 76.5 | 2.7 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| IFEval | 89.9 | 90.2 | 0.3 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 83.7 | 83.4 | 0.3 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.1 | 89.7 | 1.4 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| MMMU | 81.4 | 79.4 | 2.0 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1452.0 | 1448.0 | 4.0 | Claude Haiku 4.5 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max costs about $32.08 per million tokens and Grok 3 Reasoning costs about $30.72. Grok 3 Reasoning is roughly 4% cheaper than Claude Haiku 4.5 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 200,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max wins 7, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 2, and 3 are tied. On the index average, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max leads Grok 3 Reasoning by 0.9 points (83.8 versus 82.9).
The price picture favours Grok 3 Reasoning. The context picture is effectively a tie. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Claude Haiku 4.5 Max for quality-sensitive work and Grok 3 Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
Choose Grok 3 Reasoning if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Haiku 4.5 Max better than Grok 3 Reasoning?
On the index average, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max leads Grok 3 Reasoning by 0.9 points (83.8 versus 82.9). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Haiku 4.5 Max wins 7 benchmarks, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 2.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5 Max or Grok 3 Reasoning?
Grok 3 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $30.72 per million tokens, versus $32.08 for Claude Haiku 4.5 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 200,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Haiku 4.5 Max is proprietary; Grok 3 Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Haiku 4.5 Max for quality-sensitive work and Grok 3 Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.