GPT-4.1 Pro vs Grok 4: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Pro and Grok 4 on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 4 has the stronger average benchmark score; Grok 4 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 4
Grok 4 is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $17.90 per million input tokens and $84.75 per million output tokens, and averages 86.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.90 / 1M
- Output
- $84.75 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 86.5
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-4.1 Pro | Grok 4 | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.56 | $17.90 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $91.14 | $84.75 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 200,000 | A |
| Max output | 8,192 | 32,768 | B |
| Average score | 85.2 | 86.5 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1449.6 | 1457.8 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Pro wins 3, Grok 4 wins 9, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Pro | Grok 4 | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.9 | 87.8 | 0.9 | Grok 4 |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.2 | 82.6 | 4.4 | Grok 4 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.3 | 77.9 | 0.6 | Grok 4 |
| HumanEval | 91.9 | 92.0 | 0.1 | Grok 4 |
| MATH-500 | 88.8 | 90.8 | 2.0 | Grok 4 |
| AIME 2025 | 82.8 | 82.2 | 0.6 | GPT-4.1 Pro |
| LiveCodeBench | 76.7 | 82.2 | 5.5 | Grok 4 |
| IFEval | 92.2 | 91.6 | 0.6 | GPT-4.1 Pro |
| TruthfulQA | 87.7 | 87.6 | 0.1 | GPT-4.1 Pro |
| HellaSwag | 93.7 | 93.9 | 0.2 | Grok 4 |
| MMMU | 81.5 | 82.9 | 1.4 | Grok 4 |
| Arena Elo | 1449.6 | 1457.8 | 8.2 | Grok 4 |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-4.1 Pro costs about $35.95 per million tokens and Grok 4 costs about $34.61. Grok 4 is roughly 4% 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.
GPT-4.1 Pro has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for Grok 4. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Pro wins 3, Grok 4 wins 9, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Grok 4 leads GPT-4.1 Pro by 1.3 points (86.5 versus 85.2).
The price picture favours Grok 4. The context picture favours GPT-4.1 Pro. 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 4 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose GPT-4.1 Pro if
- You need the larger 400,000-token context window.
Choose Grok 4 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 32,768-token output limit.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Pro better than Grok 4?
On the index average, Grok 4 leads GPT-4.1 Pro by 1.3 points (86.5 versus 85.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Pro wins 3 benchmarks, Grok 4 wins 9.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Pro or Grok 4?
Grok 4 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $34.61 per million tokens, versus $35.95 for GPT-4.1 Pro.
Which has the larger context window?
GPT-4.1 Pro has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. Grok 4 has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Pro is proprietary; Grok 4 is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Grok 4 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.