Grok 4 Max vs Grok 4 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared Grok 4 Max and Grok 4 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 4 Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; Grok 4 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
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
Grok 4 Reasoning
Grok 4 Reasoning is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $19.67 per million input tokens and $93.29 per million output tokens, and averages 87.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.67 / 1M
- Output
- $93.29 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.8
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Grok 4 Max | Grok 4 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.70 | $19.67 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $98.29 | $93.29 | B |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 2,000,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 16,384 | 65,536 | B |
| Average score | 86.6 | 87.8 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1491.4 | 1487.6 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Grok 4 Max wins 4, Grok 4 Reasoning wins 8, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Grok 4 Max | Grok 4 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.8 | 88.5 | 0.7 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 82.0 | 81.9 | 0.1 | Grok 4 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.3 | 78.0 | 3.7 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 93.4 | 93.8 | 0.4 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| MATH-500 | 94.6 | 94.4 | 0.2 | Grok 4 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 87.3 | 85.6 | 1.7 | Grok 4 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 81.3 | 85.1 | 3.8 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| IFEval | 92.5 | 93.4 | 0.9 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 85.8 | 89.4 | 3.6 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| HellaSwag | 94.1 | 95.2 | 1.1 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| MMMU | 80.0 | 80.8 | 0.8 | Grok 4 Reasoning |
| Arena Elo | 1491.4 | 1487.6 | 3.8 | Grok 4 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Grok 4 Max costs about $39.35 per million tokens and Grok 4 Reasoning costs about $38.08. Grok 4 Reasoning is roughly 3% cheaper than Grok 4 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 4 Max wins 4, Grok 4 Reasoning wins 8, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Grok 4 Reasoning leads Grok 4 Max by 1.2 points (87.8 versus 86.6).
The price picture favours Grok 4 Reasoning. 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 4 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Grok 4 Max if
- You prefer xAI's tooling or already use it.
Choose Grok 4 Reasoning 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 65,536-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Grok 4 Max better than Grok 4 Reasoning?
On the index average, Grok 4 Reasoning leads Grok 4 Max by 1.2 points (87.8 versus 86.6). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Grok 4 Max wins 4 benchmarks, Grok 4 Reasoning wins 8.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4 Max or Grok 4 Reasoning?
Grok 4 Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $38.08 per million tokens, versus $39.35 for Grok 4 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 2,000,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Grok 4 Max is proprietary; Grok 4 Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Grok 4 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.