Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4 vs Grok 3 benchmark

Name: Claude Sonnet 4 vs Grok 3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Sonnet 4 (Anthropic) and Grok 3 (xAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 17, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Sonnet 4 is ahead by 50 points (1,455 vs 1,405; lmarena (Aug 17, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Sonnet 4 resolves 62.8% versus 51.4% (swebench (Aug 17, 2026)). Claude Sonnet 4 streams faster (92 tok/s) while Claude Sonnet 4 is the cheaper output token ($15/1M). Claude Sonnet 4 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4

First Sonnet 4 generation. Bridge between 3.5/3.7 and Sonnet 5.

Elo 1,455$15/1M out

xAI

Grok 3

Previous xAI generation before Grok 4. Kept for grok 3 vs grok 4.

Elo 1,405$15/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4 (8)vsGrok 3 (0)

Claude Sonnet 4: 8W (100%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4Grok 3: 0W (0%)

← Claude Sonnet 42 tiesGrok 3 →

Claude Sonnet 4 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,455vs1,405

Coding Elo

1,468vs—

SWE-bench

62.8%vs51.4%

LiveBench

63.2%vs60.2%

GPQA Diamond

76.4%vs74.2%

Claude Sonnet 4: 5WGrok 3: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

92 tok/svs88 tok/s

Time to first token

220 msvs250 ms

Claude Sonnet 4: 2WGrok 3: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4 (1/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

1Mvs131k

Claude Sonnet 4: 1WGrok 3: 0W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Sonnet 4 5/6

Preference Elo

Claude Sonnet 4

50 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Sonnet 4

4 tok/s faster

Token Price Efficiency

Claude Sonnet 4

Same price

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+4%1,455

EloHigh is better

1,405

Code Elo

High is better

1,468

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

+5%63.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

60.2%

SWE-bench

High is better

+22%62.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

51.4%

GPQA

High is better

+3%76.4%

GPQAHigh is better

74.2%

TTFT

Low is better

+14%220 ms

TTFTLow is better

250 ms

Speed

High is better

+5%92 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

88 tok/s

In $

Low is better

$3.00 / 1M

In $Low is better

$3.00 / 1M

Out $

Low is better

$15.00 / 1M

Out $Low is better

$15.00 / 1M

Context

High is better

+663%1M

ContextHigh is better

131k

Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Sonnet 4$330.00 / mo

In: $105Out: $225

Grok 3$330.00 / mo

In: $105Out: $225

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Sonnet 4:Pick Claude Sonnet 4 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Sonnet 4:Pick Claude Sonnet 4 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Claude Sonnet 4:Pick Claude Sonnet 4 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4

Higher SWE-bench (62.8%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 4

Lower output list price ($15/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4

Lower TTFT (220 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4	Higher SWE-bench (62.8%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower TTFT (220 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4).

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4

Elo 1,455

LiveBench63.2%

SWE-bench62.8%

Speed92 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

xAI

Grok 3

Elo 1,405

LiveBench60.2%

SWE-bench51.4%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 3?: Claude Sonnet 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,455). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 3?: Claude Sonnet 4 leads SWE-bench at 62.8% vs 51.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Claude Sonnet 4 output tokens are $15/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 3?: Claude Sonnet 4 has the lower time-to-first-token (220 ms vs 250 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Sonnet 4 accepts 1M tokens versus 131k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4 and Grok 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 4 matchups →|All Grok 3 matchups →

Claude Sonnet 4 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 (next sonnet)Grok 3 vs Grok 4 (next grok)Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4

Claude Sonnet 4 vs Grok 3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4 (8)vsGrok 3 (0)

Claude Sonnet 4: 8W (100%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 4Grok 3: 0W (0%)

← Claude Sonnet 42 tiesGrok 3 →

Claude Sonnet 4 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,455vs1,405

Coding Elo

1,468vs—

SWE-bench

62.8%vs51.4%

LiveBench

63.2%vs60.2%

GPQA Diamond

76.4%vs74.2%

Claude Sonnet 4: 5WGrok 3: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

92 tok/svs88 tok/s

Time to first token

220 msvs250 ms

Claude Sonnet 4: 2WGrok 3: 0W

Claude Sonnet 4 (1/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

1Mvs131k

Claude Sonnet 4: 1WGrok 3: 0W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 4

Higher SWE-bench (62.8%).

High-volume chatClaude Sonnet 4

Lower output list price ($15/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4

Lower TTFT (220 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 4

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 4	Higher SWE-bench (62.8%).
High-volume chat	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4	Lower TTFT (220 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 4	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Sonnet 4).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 3?

Claude Sonnet 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,455). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 3?

Claude Sonnet 4 leads SWE-bench at 62.8% vs 51.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Claude Sonnet 4 output tokens are $15/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4 or Grok 3?

Claude Sonnet 4 has the lower time-to-first-token (220 ms vs 250 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Sonnet 4 accepts 1M tokens versus 131k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4 and Grok 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.