Head-to-head · frontier vs frontier

GPT-5.1 vs Grok 4 Pro: which model should you choose?

We compared GPT-5.1 and Grok 4 Pro on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-5.1 has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.1 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.

OpenAI

GPT-5.1

GPT-5.1 is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $19.01 per million input tokens and $69.84 per million output tokens, and averages 86.0 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$19.01 / 1M
Output
$69.84 / 1M
Context
2,000,000
Avg score
86.0
Open weights
No
Full GPT-5.1 page
xAI

Grok 4 Pro

Grok 4 Pro is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $19.00 per million input tokens and $77.72 per million output tokens, and averages 85.4 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$19.00 / 1M
Output
$77.72 / 1M
Context
1,000,000
Avg score
85.4
Open weights
No
Full Grok 4 Pro page

Specification comparison

SpecGPT-5.1Grok 4 ProEdge
Input price / 1M$19.01$19.00B
Output price / 1M$69.84$77.72A
Context window2,000,0001,000,000A
Max output128,000128,000Tie
Average score86.085.4A
Arena Elo1462.51487.5B
Open weightsNoNoTie

Benchmark comparison

GPT-5.1 wins 7, Grok 4 Pro wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkGPT-5.1Grok 4 ProGapWinner
MMLU-Pro86.184.91.2GPT-5.1
GPQA Diamond82.379.23.1GPT-5.1
SWE-bench Verified76.174.71.4GPT-5.1
HumanEval90.689.70.9GPT-5.1
MATH-50090.592.31.8Grok 4 Pro
AIME 202585.685.40.2GPT-5.1
LiveCodeBench78.977.81.1GPT-5.1
IFEval90.991.30.4Grok 4 Pro
TruthfulQA89.286.03.2GPT-5.1
HellaSwag92.292.80.6Grok 4 Pro
MMMU83.384.91.6Grok 4 Pro
Arena Elo1462.51487.525.0Grok 4 Pro

Price analysis

On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-5.1 costs about $31.72 per million tokens and Grok 4 Pro costs about $33.68. GPT-5.1 is roughly 6% cheaper than Grok 4 Pro. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.

GPT-5.1 has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for Grok 4 Pro. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.

Verdict

Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-5.1 wins 7, Grok 4 Pro wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-5.1 leads Grok 4 Pro by 0.6 points (86.0 versus 85.4).

The price picture favours GPT-5.1. The context picture favours GPT-5.1. 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 GPT-5.1 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

Choose GPT-5.1 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.

Choose Grok 4 Pro if

  • You prefer xAI's tooling or already use it.

FAQ

Is GPT-5.1 better than Grok 4 Pro?

On the index average, GPT-5.1 leads Grok 4 Pro by 0.6 points (86.0 versus 85.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-5.1 wins 7 benchmarks, Grok 4 Pro wins 5.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.1 or Grok 4 Pro?

GPT-5.1 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $31.72 per million tokens, versus $33.68 for Grok 4 Pro.

Which has the larger context window?

GPT-5.1 has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Grok 4 Pro has 1,000,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

GPT-5.1 is proprietary; Grok 4 Pro is proprietary.

Which should I choose for production?

If you need a single default, start with GPT-5.1 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

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