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Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.3

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 16 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

65.32/100
Margin
0.2pts
← winning
65.1/100
3 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); Grok 4.3 #31 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.3 share 16 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 20 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 9 to Grok 4.3.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
16
Claude Sonnet 5 only
20
Grok 4.3 only
9
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Grok 4.3 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 16 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Sonnet 5 has the cleaner BenchAlign overall profile here, landing at 65.32 versus 65.1. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.

Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 76.7 against 47.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HLE, 57.4% to 35%.

Claude Sonnet 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.25 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens for Grok 4.3. That is roughly 4.0x on output cost alone.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.3
CategoryClaude Sonnet 5ΔGrok 4.3
CodingClaude Sonnet 576.7Margin← 29.4Grok 4.347.3
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 557.4Margin← 15.0Grok 4.342.4
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 588.3Margin← 10.2Grok 4.378.1
AgenticClaude Sonnet 581.9MarginNo overlapGrok 4.3Not measured
Inst. FollowingClaude Sonnet 5Not measuredMarginNo overlapGrok 4.381.3

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude Sonnet 5B · Grok 4.3

  1. HLE

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 57.4%B 35%
    Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 22.4
    HLE: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 57.4%; Grok 4.3 scored 35%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 outputGrok 4.3$1.25 input / $2.5 outputGrok 4.3 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Sonnet 5Not availableGrok 4.3209 tok/sA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Sonnet 5Not availableGrok 4.312.36 sA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Sonnet 51MGrok 4.31MListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%—Not comparable
BrowseCompSource 84.7%—Not comparable
HLE w/ toolsSource 57.4%—Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 81.2%—Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 16071085Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA Agentic IndexSource 46.7%24.1%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
GDPval-AASource 55.4%29.2%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA BriefcaseSource 1388—Not comparable
AA AutomationBenchSource 39.2%—Not comparable
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 44.7%—Not comparable
AA Harvey LABSource 90.1%—Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource 28.2%—Not comparable
aaTerminalBench21Source 80.5%—Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource —97.7%Not comparable
APEX-Agents-AASource —17.0%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource —43.86%Not comparable
ResearchClawBenchSource —12.4%Not comparable
CodingClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 85.2%—Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 63.2%—Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 78.3%—Not comparable
SWE MultimodalSource 28.1%—Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%—Not comparable
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource 42.7%—Not comparable
cursorBench32Source 61.5%—Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 71.5%42.3%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-SciCodeSource 53.6%47.3%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
SciCodeSource —47.3%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Result
AA-LCRSource 70.7%64.3%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
CritPtSource 16.9%8.0%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Result
HLESource 57.4%35%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
HLE w/o toolsSource 43.2%—Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 53.4%37.6%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 91.1%90.1%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-HLESource 39.6%35.0%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 15.3%18.3%Grok 4.3 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 38.3%34.6%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 37.3%25.0%Grok 4.3 leads
GPQASource —90.1%Not comparable
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Result
CharXivSource 88.3%—Not comparable
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 77%—Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 77.3%78.1%Grok 4.3 leads
Design Arena WebsiteSource 13141225Claude Sonnet 5 leads
MMMU-ProSource —78.1%Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.3Result
IFBenchSource —81.3%Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource —81.3%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.3?

Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 65.32 to 65.1. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HLE, where the scores are 57.4% and 35%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.3?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.4 versus 42.4. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.3?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.7 versus 47.3. Inside this category, AA Coding Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.3?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.3 versus 78.1. Inside this category, Design Arena Website is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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