GPT-4.1 Pro vs Grok 3 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Pro and Grok 3 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 3 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Grok 3 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
GPT-4.1 Pro
GPT-4.1 Pro is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.56 per million input tokens and $91.14 per million output tokens, and averages 85.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.56 / 1M
- Output
- $91.14 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 85.2
- 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 | GPT-4.1 Pro | Grok 3 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.56 | $17.66 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $91.14 | $89.12 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 8,192 | 32,768 | B |
| Average score | 85.2 | 85.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1449.6 | 1475.8 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Pro wins 3, Grok 3 Max wins 8, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Pro | Grok 3 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.9 | 87.3 | 0.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.2 | 80.9 | 2.7 | Grok 3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.3 | 73.6 | 3.7 | GPT-4.1 Pro |
| HumanEval | 91.9 | 91.9 | 0.0 | Tie |
| MATH-500 | 88.8 | 91.9 | 3.1 | Grok 3 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 82.8 | 86.6 | 3.8 | Grok 3 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 76.7 | 79.7 | 3.0 | Grok 3 Max |
| IFEval | 92.2 | 92.6 | 0.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 87.7 | 86.7 | 1.0 | GPT-4.1 Pro |
| HellaSwag | 93.7 | 91.8 | 1.9 | GPT-4.1 Pro |
| MMMU | 81.5 | 82.3 | 0.8 | Grok 3 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1449.6 | 1475.8 | 26.2 | Grok 3 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-4.1 Pro costs about $35.95 per million tokens and Grok 3 Max costs about $35.53. Grok 3 Max is roughly 1% cheaper than GPT-4.1 Pro. 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 400,000 for GPT-4.1 Pro. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Pro wins 3, Grok 3 Max wins 8, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads GPT-4.1 Pro by 0.7 points (85.9 versus 85.2).
The price picture favours Grok 3 Max. 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 Grok 3 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose GPT-4.1 Pro if
- You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.
Choose Grok 3 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Pro better than Grok 3 Max?
On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads GPT-4.1 Pro by 0.7 points (85.9 versus 85.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Pro wins 3 benchmarks, Grok 3 Max wins 8.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Pro or Grok 3 Max?
Grok 3 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $35.53 per million tokens, versus $35.95 for GPT-4.1 Pro.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-4.1 Pro has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Pro is proprietary; Grok 3 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Grok 3 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.