Finishes agent tasks in half the turns — cheap where it counts.
86
Coding
84
Writing
88
Research
72
Images
62
Value
80
Long Context
Published benchmarks
Use this when
Long-running agents and multi-step codebase work
Skip this if
You need a published SWE-bench score to justify the pick, or your prompts routinely cross 200K tokens where the price doubles.
Pricing
$2.00/1M in
$6.00/1M out
Context
500k tokens
Speed
Fast
Released August 12, 2026, succeeding Grok 4.5. Long-context billing is a cliff, not a ramp: at 200K tokens and above the whole request is charged at $4/$12. DeepSWE 65.9%, CursorBench 3.2 70.8%, FrontierCode 1.1 Extended 61.3%, Terminal-Bench 3.0 26.5%, APEX-Agents 57.5%.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is Anthropic's mid-cycle flagship model, balancing strong reasoning, coding, and instruction-following with a 200K context window. It sits between Haiku and Opus in Anthropic's lineup, offering near-flagship quality at a lower cost than top-tier models.
Verdict
One of the best models for coding and complex instruction-following, but its premium pricing demands premium use cases.
Quality score
81%
Pricing
$6.00/1M in
$30.00/1M out
Speed
Balanced
3/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
Pricing at $6 input / $30 output per million tokens is significantly higher than GPT-4o ($2.50/$10). Best accessed via Anthropic API or Amazon Bedrock. Claude 3.5 Sonnet (October 2024 version) supersedes the June 2024 release with improved performance.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet with extended thinking enabled — Anthropic's hybrid reasoning model that explicitly deliberates before responding, surfacing its chain-of-thought for complex multi-step problems. It sits between standard Sonnet and full reasoning-only models, balancing depth with practical usability.
Verdict
The most transparent reasoning model on the market — ideal when you need to see and trust the thought process, not just the answer.
Quality score
73%
Pricing
$3.00/1M in
$15.00/1M out
Speed
Deliberate
2/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
Thinking tokens (the internal reasoning trace) count toward output token billing, which can significantly increase costs on complex queries. The thinking budget can often be configured via the API. Best used selectively for tasks that genuinely benefit from deliberation rather than as a default model.
ReasoningExtended ThinkingCodingAgenticAnthropic
Best for
Tackling complex coding challenges, mathematical proofs, and multi-step logical problems where visible reasoning and higher accuracy matter more than speed.
Claude Opus 4 is Anthropic's most capable flagship model, designed for complex reasoning, nuanced writing, and sophisticated multi-step tasks. It sits at the top of the Claude 4 family, prioritizing depth and quality over speed.
Verdict
Anthropic's best model for when quality matters more than speed or cost.
Quality score
84%
Pricing
$15.00/1M in
$75.00/1M out
Speed
Deliberate
2/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
At $15 input / $75 output per 1M tokens, Opus 4 is one of the most expensive models available. Anthropic recommends using Claude Sonnet 4 for most production use cases and reserving Opus 4 for tasks explicitly requiring maximum capability.
FlagshipPremiumReasoningLong ContextAgentic
Best for
Demanding professional tasks requiring deep reasoning, nuanced judgment, and high-quality long-form output.
Grok 4.6 is best for long-running agents and multi-step codebase work. It is a strong fit when that workflow matters more than the tradeoffs around balanced pricing and fast speed.
When should I avoid Grok 4.6?
You need a published SWE-bench score to justify the pick, or your prompts routinely cross 200K tokens where the price doubles.
What is a cheaper alternative to Grok 4.6?
Mistral: Mistral Nemo is the lower-cost option to compare first when you want a similar workflow fit with less token spend.
What is a faster alternative to Grok 4.6?
Anthropic: Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the better pick when response time matters more than maximum depth or premium quality.
Newsletter
Get notified when Grok 4.6 pricing changes
We track pricing daily. When this model drops or spikes, you'll know first.
No spam. Useful updates only. Affiliate disclosures always clearly labeled.