Grok 4.6 vs Claude Opus 5
Wins 2 of 8 areas
Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 6 of 8 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Images and charts · Math
Claude Opus 5 is the stronger all-rounder.Grok 4.6 is cheaper and better at long documents.
Both rank among the ten best models we track in reasoning.
Scores updated · 33 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the eight areas we test. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking05Claude Opus 55 of 7 tests · 2 ties
- CodingWriting and fixing software05Claude Opus 55 of 5 tests
- MathCompetition and research-level math03Claude Opus 53 of 3 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own12Claude Opus 52 of 3 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up12Claude Opus 52 of 3 tests
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video01Claude Opus 51 of 1 test
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Grok 4.61 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Grok 4.61 of 1 test
Images and charts, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Grok 4.6 costs 73% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The three tests each model wins by the widest margin. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Opus 5 pulls ahead
- Extremely hard research-level math problemsFrontierMath Tier 4+41.5points ahead
- Complex command-line tasks across many fieldsTerminal-Bench 4.0+31.8points ahead
- Solves new puzzle games it has never seenARC-AGI-3+28.1points ahead
Where Grok 4.6 pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+36.8points ahead
- Follows detailed instructions exactlyLiveBench · Instruction Following+8.1points ahead
- Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+1.7points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 33 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Opus 5
- LiveBench · Agentic CodingClaude Opus 5 by 8.25765.2+8.2
- LMArena · WebDevClaude Opus 5 by 75 rating points16171692+75 rating
- LiveBench · CodingClaude Opus 5 by 4.776.881.5+4.7
- SciCodeClaude Opus 5 by 3.45356.4+3.4
- Terminal-Bench 2.1Claude Opus 5 by 1.18889.1+1.1
AgentsClaude Opus 5
- Terminal-Bench 4.0Claude Opus 5 by 31.817.249+31.8
- GDPValClaude Opus 5 by 3.957.361.2+3.9
- τ-Bench V3 · BankingGrok 4.6 by 1.243.342.1+1.2
ReasoningClaude Opus 5
- ARC-AGI-3Claude Opus 5 by 28.12.130.2+28.1
- ARC-AGI-2Claude Opus 5 by 23.367.190.4+23.3
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Opus 5 by 10.844.154.9+10.8
- CritPtClaude Opus 5 by 9.419.729.1+9.4
- SimpleBenchClaude Opus 5 by 4.775.980.6+4.7
- LiveBench · Reasoningtie90.591.2tie
- GPQA Diamondtie93.593.2tie
FactsClaude Opus 5
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationGrok 4.6 by 36.87639.2+36.8
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Opus 5 by 17.94360.9+17.9
- SimpleQA VerifiedClaude Opus 5 by 1148.959.9+11
Images and chartsClaude Opus 5
- LMArena · VisionClaude Opus 5 by 56 rating points12651321+56 rating
MathClaude Opus 5
- FrontierMath Tier 4Claude Opus 5 by 41.531.773.2+41.5
- FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)Claude Opus 5 by 19.66685.6+19.6
- LiveBench · MathematicsClaude Opus 5 by 3.192.695.7+3.1
Following instructionsGrok 4.6
- LiveBench · Instruction FollowingGrok 4.6 by 8.171.963.8+8.1
Other results9 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- Terminal-Bench 4.0Claude Opus 5 by 31.520.351.8+31.5
- ARC-AGI-1Claude Opus 5 by 10.58797.5+10.5
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Opus 5 by 7.829.337.1+7.8
- AA IntelligenceClaude Opus 5 by 6.644.250.8+6.6
- livebench_languageClaude Opus 5 by 583.788.7+5
- AA Agentic IndexClaude Opus 5 by 3.552.756.2+3.5
- DeepSWE 1.1Claude Opus 5 by 2.965.968.8+2.9
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Opus 5 by 2.175.978+2.1
- livebench_data_analysistie73.974.5tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Claude Opus 5?
Claude Opus 5 wins six of the eight areas we test: coding, agents, reasoning, facts, images and charts and math. Grok 4.6 wins long documents and following instructions, and costs 73% less.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Opus 5. It wins 5 of the 5 coding tests both models report; Grok 4.6 wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00 and $25.00. That makes Grok 4.6 about 73% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 33 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 24 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 9 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.