Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.3
Anthropic vs xAI · Prices checked 12 August 2026
There is a 2.7× price gap here. Grok 4.3 blends to $1.63 per million tokens; Claude Sonnet 5 to $4.40. A single 100K-input, 10K-output job costs $0.150 on Grok 4.3 against $0.300 on Claude Sonnet 5.
Neither has a context advantage; both cap at 1,000,000 tokens. Claude Sonnet 5 was released Jun 2026; Grok 4.3 Apr 2026.
Pricing and capacity
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M tokens | $2.00 | $1.25 | 38% |
| Output / 1M tokens | $10.00 | $2.50 | 4.0× |
| Blended · 70/30calculated | $4.40 | $1.63 | 2.7× |
| Blended · 50/50calculated | $6.00 | $1.88 | 3.2× |
| Blended · 80/20calculated | $3.60 | $1.50 | 2.4× |
| Blended · 20/80calculated | $8.40 | $2.25 | 3.7× |
| Job cost · 100K + 10Kcalculated | $0.300 | $0.150 | 2.0× |
| Job cost · 1M + 100Kcalculated | $3.00 | $1.50 | 2.0× |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 | level |
Input and output rates are as published by each provider. Blended and job-cost rows are calculated comparison metrics, not published prices — how they are derived.
Benchmarks
These two models do not currently report scores on any of the same benchmark suites, so there is no like-for-like capability comparison to show. Rather than pad the page with one-sided numbers, the benchmark leaderboards list every score we do hold.
What each model is for
Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic · Balanced
The most agentic Sonnet Anthropic has shipped: it plans, drives tools like browsers and terminals, and runs autonomously at a level that previously needed a larger model, with performance close to Opus 4.8 at a fraction of the price. Launch pricing is $2/$10 per MTok through 31 August 2026, after which it moves to $3/$15.
- Autonomous multi-step agent runs
- Browser and terminal tool use
- Near-Opus performance at Sonnet pricing
- 1M-token context
Grok 4.3
xAI · Frontier
xAI's current flagship, fully rolled out to the API at the end of April 2026 at $1.25/$2.50 per MTok, roughly 40% below its predecessor on input and 60% on output. It adds native video input, document generation for PDFs, spreadsheets and slides, improved tool-calling, and three adjustable reasoning-intensity levels, alongside a 1M-token context window.
- Aggressive pricing for a flagship tier
- Native video input
- Document generation (PDF, spreadsheet, slides)
- Three adjustable reasoning-intensity levels
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.3?
There is a 2.7× price gap here. Grok 4.3 blends to $1.63 per million tokens; Claude Sonnet 5 to $4.40. A single 100K-input, 10K-output job costs $0.150 on Grok 4.3 against $0.300 on Claude Sonnet 5. Blended cost weights input at 70% and output at 30%; price your own token split for an exact answer, since the cheaper model on a blended basis is not always cheaper for your workload.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.3?
Neither has a context advantage; both cap at 1,000,000 tokens. The context window caps everything in a single request: prompt, retrieved documents, conversation history and the model’s own output all share it.
Can I compare Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.3 on my own numbers?
Yes. Open both in the side-by-side comparison tool to see every field at once, or use the token calculator to price your actual prompt and monthly request volume against each model. Both are free and need no sign-up.
Price it for your own workload
Related matchups
Terms used on this page
Prices and scores are recomputed on every deploy from the catalogue. Prices checked 12 August 2026.