Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning vs Grok 4 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning and Grok 4 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $19.48 per million input tokens and $68.20 per million output tokens, and averages 87.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.48 / 1M
- Output
- $68.20 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 87.7
- Open weights
- No
Grok 4 Max
Grok 4 Max is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $19.70 per million input tokens and $98.29 per million output tokens, and averages 86.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.70 / 1M
- Output
- $98.29 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 86.6
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning | Grok 4 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.48 | $19.70 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $68.20 | $98.29 | A |
| Context window | 400,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 8,192 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 87.7 | 86.6 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1486.5 | 1491.4 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning wins 6, Grok 4 Max wins 5, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning | Grok 4 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.6 | 87.8 | 0.2 | Grok 4 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 85.2 | 82.0 | 3.2 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.6 | 74.3 | 5.3 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 90.3 | 93.4 | 3.1 | Grok 4 Max |
| MATH-500 | 89.7 | 94.6 | 4.9 | Grok 4 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 87.3 | 87.3 | 0.0 | Tie |
| LiveCodeBench | 85.1 | 81.3 | 3.8 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning |
| IFEval | 91.9 | 92.5 | 0.6 | Grok 4 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 87.6 | 85.8 | 1.8 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning |
| HellaSwag | 95.2 | 94.1 | 1.1 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning |
| MMMU | 85.2 | 80.0 | 5.2 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning |
| Arena Elo | 1486.5 | 1491.4 | 4.9 | Grok 4 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning costs about $31.66 per million tokens and Grok 4 Max costs about $39.35. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning is roughly 20% cheaper than Grok 4 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 4 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 400,000 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning wins 6, Grok 4 Max wins 5, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning leads Grok 4 Max by 1.1 points (87.7 versus 86.6).
The price picture favours Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning. The context picture favours Grok 4 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 Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose Grok 4 Max if
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning better than Grok 4 Max?
On the index average, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning leads Grok 4 Max by 1.1 points (87.7 versus 86.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning wins 6 benchmarks, Grok 4 Max wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning or Grok 4 Max?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $31.66 per million tokens, versus $39.35 for Grok 4 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 4 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning is proprietary; Grok 4 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Sonnet 4.5 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.