Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.20
| Signal | Claude Sonnet 5 | Delta | Grok 4.20 |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 100 | -- | |
Pricing | 90 | -7 | |
Context window size | 95 | -5 | |
Recency | 100 | -- | |
Output Capacity | 85 | +65 | |
Benchmarks | 0 | -86 | |
| Overall Result | 1 wins | of 6 | 3 wins |
Score History
85.2
current score
Grok 4.20
right now
88.8
current score
Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic
Grok 4.20
xAI
Grok 4.20 saves you $450.00/month
That's $5400.00/year compared to Claude Sonnet 5 at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.20 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 85 | 89 | Grok 4.20 |
| Rank | #41 | #29 | Grok 4.20 |
| Quality Rank | #41 | #29 | Grok 4.20 |
| Adoption Rank | #41 | #29 | Grok 4.20 |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1000K | 2000K | Grok 4.20 |
| Pricing | $2.00/$10.00/M | $1.25/$2.50/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 100 | 100 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Pricing | 90 | 98 | Grok 4.20 |
| Context window size | 95 | 100 | Grok 4.20 |
| Recency | 100 | 100 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Output Capacity | 85 | 20 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
| Benchmarks | -- | 86 | Grok 4.20 |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 85/100 (rank #41), placing it in the top 86% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 89/100 (rank #29), placing it in the top 90% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 4-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 when you need:
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Choose Grok 4.20 when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
- Processing long documents or large codebases (2000K token context)
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Grok 4.20 offers 69% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $56.25/month with Grok 4.20 vs $180.00/month with Claude Sonnet 5 - a $123.75 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Grok 4.20 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (2000K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($2.50/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (89/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Grok 4.20 has a moderate advantage with a 3.5999999999999943-point lead in composite score. It wins on more signal dimensions, but Claude Sonnet 5 has specific strengths that could make it the better choice for certain workflows.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
Claude Sonnet 5
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Grok 4.20
69% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Claude Sonnet 5
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Claude Sonnet 5
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Claude Sonnet 5
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Anthropic
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.20 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input) | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic
Grok 4.20
xAI
Grok 4.20 saves you $10.35/month
That's 66% cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5 at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.20 |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1M | 2M |
| Max Output Tokens | 128,000 | -- |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Jun 30, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 |