A scrappy, low-cost coding model worth benchmarking for high-volume pipelines, but output pricing limits its ceiling.
72
Coding
28
Writing
35
Research
0
Images
78
Value
65
Long Context
Use this when
High-volume, low-latency coding tasks where cost per token matters more than peak quality.
Skip this if
You need high-quality prose generation, complex multi-step reasoning, or image understanding — this model is narrow-purpose and will underperform outside of coding tasks.
Pricing
$0.20/1M in
$1.50/1M out
→0%since May 2026
Context
256k tokens
Speed
Very fast
Pricing is asymmetric: input at ~$0.20/1M is excellent, but $1.50/1M output undercuts its budget appeal for generation-heavy use. Availability through xAI's API; check for rate limits and regional availability as xAI's infrastructure is still scaling.
Exceptionally low input cost at $0.20/1M tokens, undercutting most competitors in the budget coding space
256K context window is generous for a budget model, enabling full codebase ingestion
Optimized inference speed makes it suitable for real-time code completion pipelines
Coding-specialized focus means less dilution from generalist training objectives
Weaknesses
Output cost of $1.50/1M tokens is relatively high for a 'fast' budget model compared to GPT-4.1 Mini or Gemini 2.0 Flash
Limited to coding use cases — poor choice for nuanced writing, deep reasoning, or multimodal tasks
Newer and less battle-tested than established budget coding models from OpenAI or Anthropic
Real-world use cases
What people actually use Grok Code Fast 1 for.
Automated code review pipeline ingesting large PRs within the 256K context window
Real-time autocomplete backend for an IDE plugin requiring sub-200ms latency
Batch processing thousands of small code snippets for linting suggestions at minimal cost
How Grok Code Fast 1 compares
The nearest models people weigh against it, and what actually separates them.
vs Claude 3 Haiku — Against Claude 3 Haiku (Anthropic), Grok Code Fast 1 costs about 12% more per token and takes 1.3x the context. Claude 3 Haiku is the one to check first if the price difference matters more than the ceiling.
vs Claude 3.5 Haiku — Against Claude 3.5 Haiku (Anthropic), Grok Code Fast 1 runs about 65% cheaper per token and takes 1.3x the context. Take Grok Code Fast 1 unless you specifically need what Claude 3.5 Haiku does better.
vs Claude Haiku 4.5 — Against Claude Haiku 4.5 (Anthropic), Grok Code Fast 1 runs about 72% cheaper per token and takes 1.3x the context. Take Grok Code Fast 1 unless you specifically need what Claude Haiku 4.5 does better.
Price History
Grok Code Fast 1 pricing over time
→0% since May 31
90 data points · tracked daily since May 31, 2026
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Start using Grok Code Fast 1
High-volume, low-latency coding tasks where cost per token matters more than peak quality.. Start free — no card required.
Claude 3 Haiku is Anthropic's fastest and most affordable Claude 3 model, designed for high-throughput tasks where speed and cost efficiency matter more than peak intelligence. It delivers surprisingly capable responses for a budget tier model, with a generous 200K context window.
Verdict
A capable budget workhorse, but Claude 3.5 Haiku has made it mostly obsolete for new deployments.
Quality score
53%
Pricing
$0.25/1M in
$1.25/1M out
Speed
Very fast
5/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
Claude 3 Haiku is part of the original Claude 3 family (March 2024). Anthropic has since released Claude 3.5 Haiku, which is generally recommended over this model for new use cases. Still widely available via Anthropic API and AWS Bedrock.
BudgetFastHigh VolumeLong ContextProduction
Best for
High-volume production pipelines, customer support bots, and real-time text processing where cost and latency are critical constraints.
Claude 3.5 Haiku is Anthropic's fastest and most affordable model in the Claude 3.5 family, designed for high-throughput tasks requiring quick responses without sacrificing Claude's core instruction-following quality. It handles a massive 200K context window while maintaining speed suitable for production pipelines.
Verdict
The fastest way to get Claude's quality in production — just don't confuse 'fast' with 'cheap'.
Quality score
64%
Pricing
$0.80/1M in
$4.00/1M out
Speed
Very fast
5/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
Output cost of $4/1M is notably higher than competing fast/mini models. Input cost at ~$0.80/1M is competitive. Best value emerges in input-heavy pipelines like document classification or RAG retrieval where output tokens are minimal.
High-volume, latency-sensitive applications like chatbots, classification, data extraction, and agentic tool use where speed and cost matter more than peak reasoning depth.
Claude Haiku 4.5 is Anthropic's latest lightweight model in the Claude 4 family, optimized for speed and cost-efficiency while retaining strong instruction-following and reasoning capabilities. It supersedes Claude 4 Haiku with improved performance across coding, summarization, and conversational tasks.
Verdict
The best balance of speed, context length, and cost in Anthropic's lineup for production-scale deployments.
Quality score
68%
Pricing
$1.00/1M in
$5.00/1M out
Speed
Very fast
5/5 speed
Context
200k tokens
Priced at $1/1M input and $5/1M output tokens, placing it above true budget models like Gemini Flash but below mid-tier flagships. Confirm availability of extended thinking or tool-use features via Anthropic's API documentation, as Haiku-tier models sometimes receive these capabilities later than Sonnet/Opus.
Pricing moves, ranking shifts, and capability updates.
New ModelMar 27, 2026
xAI: Grok Code Fast 1 — added to UseRightAI
xAI: Grok Code Fast 1 (xAI) is now indexed. A scrappy, low-cost coding model worth benchmarking for high-volume pipelines, but output pricing limits its ceiling.
Grok Code Fast 1 costs $0.19999999999999998 per million input tokens and $1.5 per million output tokens on the API. A month of 10M input and 2M output tokens runs about $5.00 at list price, before any batch or caching discounts.
What is Grok Code Fast 1 best for?
Grok Code Fast 1 is best for high-volume, low-latency coding tasks where cost per token matters more than peak quality.. It is a strong fit when that workflow matters more than the tradeoffs around budget pricing and very fast speed.
When should I avoid Grok Code Fast 1?
You need high-quality prose generation, complex multi-step reasoning, or image understanding — this model is narrow-purpose and will underperform outside of coding tasks.
What is a cheaper alternative to Grok Code Fast 1?
Claude 3 Haiku (Anthropic) at $0.25/1M/1M input against Grok Code Fast 1's $0.20/1M/1M — roughly 12% less per token all in. A capable budget workhorse, but Claude 3.5 Haiku has made it mostly obsolete for new deployments. Compare it first if Grok Code Fast 1's pricing is the thing stopping you.
What is a faster alternative to Grok Code Fast 1?
Claude 3.5 Haiku — very fast against Grok Code Fast 1's very fast, with 200k tokens of context. Worth the swap when response time is what your users notice rather than the last few points of reasoning depth.
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