Claude Opus 4.5 Vision vs Grok 3 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Opus 4.5 Vision and Grok 3 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.5 Vision and Grok 3 Max are effectively tied on the index average; Claude Opus 4.5 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Opus 4.5 Vision
Claude Opus 4.5 Vision is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $17.70 per million input tokens and $74.84 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.70 / 1M
- Output
- $74.84 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- Open weights
- No
Grok 3 Max
Grok 3 Max is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $17.66 per million input tokens and $89.12 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.66 / 1M
- Output
- $89.12 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Opus 4.5 Vision | Grok 3 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.70 | $17.66 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $74.84 | $89.12 | A |
| Context window | 200,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 32,768 | 32,768 | Tie |
| Average score | 85.9 | 85.9 | Tie |
| Arena Elo | 1452.2 | 1475.8 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Opus 4.5 Vision wins 4, Grok 3 Max wins 6, and 2 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.5 Vision | Grok 3 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.9 | 87.3 | 0.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.7 | 80.9 | 0.2 | Grok 3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.7 | 73.6 | 4.1 | Claude Opus 4.5 Vision |
| HumanEval | 88.2 | 91.9 | 3.7 | Grok 3 Max |
| MATH-500 | 91.9 | 91.9 | 0.0 | Tie |
| AIME 2025 | 85.4 | 86.6 | 1.2 | Grok 3 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 80.1 | 79.7 | 0.4 | Claude Opus 4.5 Vision |
| IFEval | 92.6 | 92.6 | 0.0 | Tie |
| TruthfulQA | 86.9 | 86.7 | 0.2 | Claude Opus 4.5 Vision |
| HellaSwag | 91.4 | 91.8 | 0.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| MMMU | 83.2 | 82.3 | 0.9 | Claude Opus 4.5 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1452.2 | 1475.8 | 23.6 | Grok 3 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Opus 4.5 Vision costs about $31.98 per million tokens and Grok 3 Max costs about $35.53. Claude Opus 4.5 Vision is roughly 10% cheaper than Grok 3 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.5 Vision. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.5 Vision wins 4, Grok 3 Max wins 6, and 2 are tied. The two models are effectively tied on the index average at 85.9.
The price picture favours Claude Opus 4.5 Vision. The context picture favours Grok 3 Max. 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 Opus 4.5 Vision if cost is the constraint and Grok 3 Max if context is the constraint. Test both on a sample of your own traffic before committing.
Choose Claude Opus 4.5 Vision if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose Grok 3 Max if
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Claude Opus 4.5 Vision better than Grok 3 Max?
The two models are effectively tied on the index average at 85.9. The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Opus 4.5 Vision wins 4 benchmarks, Grok 3 Max wins 6.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 Vision or Grok 3 Max?
Claude Opus 4.5 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $31.98 per million tokens, versus $35.53 for Grok 3 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Claude Opus 4.5 Vision has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Opus 4.5 Vision is proprietary; Grok 3 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Opus 4.5 Vision if cost is the constraint and Grok 3 Max if context is the constraint. Test both on a sample of your own traffic before committing.