Grok 4.6 vs Grok 4.5
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by xAI
|
by xAI
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current flagship | Current flagship |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $2.00/Mtok | $2.00/Mtok |
| Output | $6.00/Mtok | $6.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $3.00/Mtok | $3.00/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.500/Mtok | — |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 500K tokens | 500K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimage
|
textimage
|
| Benchmarks sources: Artificial Analysis / Artificial Analysis, LMSYS Chatbot Arena (UC Berkeley), xAI Grok 4.5 launch post | ||
| Independent composite scores measured for both models — each on its own scale | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | 60.9 | 55.8 |
| AA Agentic Index | 58.7 | 48.9 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 30.5 | 25.3 |
| GDPval-AA v2 | 1749.2 ELO | 1526.4 ELO |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1463.6 ELO | 1468.7 ELO |
| Per-benchmark results published for Grok 4.5 only — no independent per-benchmark scores exist for Grok 4.6 yet | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | — | 83.3 vendor |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
xAI — $2.00/$6.00/Mtok
|
xAI — $2.00/$6.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Grok 4.6 | Grok 4.5 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $3 | $3 | $0 (0%) |
| 10M tokens | $30 | $30 | $0 (0%) |
| 100M tokens | $300 | $300 | $0 (0%) |
| 1000M tokens | $3000 | $3000 | $0 (0%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick Grok 4.6 if…
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.500/Mtok — 75% off its list input price, a discount Grok 4.5 doesn't offer
Pick Grok 4.5 if…
- this pairing gives Grok 4.5 no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
Try Grok 4.6 on xAI
The cheaper option here — Grok 4.6 costs $3.00/Mtok blended on xAI.
Summary
Grok 4.6 by xAI costs $2.00/Mtok input and $6.00/Mtok output, with a 500K-token context window. It supports text, image input.
Grok 4.5 by xAI costs $2.00/Mtok input and $6.00/Mtok output, with a 500K-token context window. It supports text, image input.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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