text model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.7
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.7 are both current text models, from Anthropic and xAI. Both cost $2 per 1M input tokens. On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1476 Elo and Grok 4.7 1443 Elo (Arena, measured October 8, 2026). Claude Sonnet 5.5 has the larger context window, 1,000,000 vs 500,000 tokens.
Data verified October 12, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-12
Side by side
Standard-tier prices in effect today. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Grok 4.7 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M input tokens | $2 | $2 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $10 | $6 (better) |
| Cost of 10M input and 2M output tokens | $40 | $32 (better) |
| Arena Text | 1476 Elo (#17 of 39) (better) | 1443 Elo (#31 of 39) |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% (#2 of 37) (better) | 92.7% (#17 of 37) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 88.8% (#7 of 37) (better) | 53% (#29 of 37) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% (#21 of 34) | 56% (#16 of 34) (better) |
| Provider | Anthropic | xAI |
| Release date | September 28, 2026 | September 21, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 500,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | Not reported |
| Input | text, image | text |
| Output | text | text |
When to choose each
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Best for
- Production workloads that need frontier-adjacent quality at a mid-tier rate
- Latency-sensitive agent steps inside a larger pipeline
Watch out for
- Same list price as Claude Sonnet 5, so the gain is capability and cache economics rather than a cheaper rate card
- Anthropic positions Opus 5.5 rather than this as the default, so reach for Sonnet 5.5 when latency matters more than peak capability
Grok 4.7
Best for
- Output-heavy generation under the 200,000-token prompt line
- A cheaper alternative to the frontier tiers where 500k of context is enough
Watch out for
- The long-prompt threshold is 200,000 tokens, the lowest of any model here, and reaching it doubles input and output for the entire request
- xAI's model page does not state a maximum output for Grok 4.7, so it is recorded as unknown rather than inferred
- That page does not explicitly list image input for this model either, so it is catalogued as text-only
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.7 FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Grok 4.7?
Both cost $2 per 1M input tokens. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $40 and Grok 4.7 $32 at standard rates.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Grok 4.7?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on Arena Text, 1476 Elo to 1443 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on GPQA Diamond, 95.6% to 92.7%; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 88.8% to 53%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Grok 4.7?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 has the larger context window, 1,000,000 vs 500,000 tokens.
Related comparisons
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- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6 Sol
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.5
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.6
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.8-Max
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
Production evaluation
Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.7?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
- A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
- Routing between models by cost and difficulty