Grok 3 Max vs o3 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Grok 3 Max and o3 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.
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
o3 Max
o3 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $17.82 per million input tokens and $90.55 per million output tokens, and averages 84.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.82 / 1M
- Output
- $90.55 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 84.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Grok 3 Max | o3 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.66 | $17.82 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $89.12 | $90.55 | A |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 2,000,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 32,768 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 85.9 | 84.8 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1475.8 | 1465.2 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Grok 3 Max wins 9, o3 Max wins 3, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Grok 3 Max | o3 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.3 | 84.9 | 2.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.9 | 82.7 | 1.8 | o3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.6 | 71.8 | 1.8 | Grok 3 Max |
| HumanEval | 91.9 | 89.8 | 2.1 | Grok 3 Max |
| MATH-500 | 91.9 | 87.0 | 4.9 | Grok 3 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 86.6 | 86.2 | 0.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.7 | 76.4 | 3.3 | Grok 3 Max |
| IFEval | 92.6 | 92.5 | 0.1 | Grok 3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 86.7 | 87.3 | 0.6 | o3 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.8 | 93.4 | 1.6 | o3 Max |
| MMMU | 82.3 | 80.8 | 1.5 | Grok 3 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1475.8 | 1465.2 | 10.6 | Grok 3 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Grok 3 Max costs about $35.53 per million tokens and o3 Max costs about $36.00. Grok 3 Max is roughly 1% cheaper than o3 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 2,000,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Grok 3 Max wins 9, o3 Max wins 3, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads o3 Max by 1.1 points (85.9 versus 84.8).
The price picture favours Grok 3 Max. The context picture is effectively a tie. 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 Grok 3 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
Choose o3 Max if
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Grok 3 Max better than o3 Max?
On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads o3 Max by 1.1 points (85.9 versus 84.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Grok 3 Max wins 9 benchmarks, o3 Max wins 3.
Which is cheaper, Grok 3 Max or o3 Max?
Grok 3 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $35.53 per million tokens, versus $36.00 for o3 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 2,000,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Grok 3 Max is proprietary; o3 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.