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Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 26 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

65.32/100
Margin
11.4pts
winning →
76.72/100
1 category wins1 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); Grok 4.5 #7 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.5 share 26 comparable benchmark results. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 10 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 2 to Grok 4.5.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
26
Claude Sonnet 5 only
10
Grok 4.5 only
2
Comparable categories
2 / 8

Pick Grok 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude Sonnet 5 only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you need the larger 1M context window.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 26 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 2 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Grok 4.5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 76.72 to 65.32. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Grok 4.5's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 83.3 against 81.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 80.4% to 83.3%. Claude Sonnet 5 does hit back in coding, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude Sonnet 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens for Grok 4.5. Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 500K for Grok 4.5.

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 4.5
CategoryClaude Sonnet 5ΔGrok 4.5
CodingClaude Sonnet 576.7Margin← 12.0Grok 4.564.7
AgenticClaude Sonnet 581.9Margin→ 1.4Grok 4.583.3
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 557.4MarginNo overlapGrok 4.5Not measured
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 588.3MarginNo overlapGrok 4.5Not measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Claude Sonnet 5B · Grok 4.5

  1. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 80.4%B 83.3%
    Winner: Grok 4.5Δ 2.9
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 80.4%; Grok 4.5 scored 83.3%. Grok 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  2. SWE-bench Pro

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 63.2%B 64.7%
    Winner: Grok 4.5Δ 1.5
    SWE-bench Pro: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 63.2%; Grok 4.5 scored 64.7%. Grok 4.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.5Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 outputGrok 4.5$2 input / $6 outputGrok 4.5 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Sonnet 5Not availableGrok 4.5Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Sonnet 5Not availableGrok 4.5Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Sonnet 51MGrok 4.5500KClaude Sonnet 5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticGrok 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.5Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%83.3%Grok 4.5 leads
BrowseCompSource 84.7%—Not comparable
HLE w/ toolsSource 57.4%—Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 81.2%—Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 16071535Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA Agentic IndexSource 46.7%45.7%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
GDPval-AASource 55.4%51.7%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA BriefcaseSource 13881323Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA AutomationBenchSource 39.2%51.4%Grok 4.5 leads
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 44.7%40.8%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA Harvey LABSource 90.1%92.4%Grok 4.5 leads
AA Tau3 BankingSource 28.2%32.6%Grok 4.5 leads
aaTerminalBench21Source 80.5%81.6%Grok 4.5 leads
deepSweSource —53%Not comparable
CodingClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.5Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 85.2%—Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 63.2%64.7%Grok 4.5 leads
SWE MultilingualSource 78.3%78%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
SWE MultimodalSource 28.1%—Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%83.3%Grok 4.5 leads
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource 42.7%—Not comparable
cursorBench32Source 61.5%66.7%Grok 4.5 leads
AA Coding IndexSource 71.5%72.5%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-SciCodeSource 53.6%54.1%Grok 4.5 leads
VulcanBench v3Source —91.3%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.5Result
AA-LCRSource 70.7%67.7%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
CritPtSource 16.9%15.4%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.5Result
HLESource 57.4%—Not comparable
HLE w/o toolsSource 43.2%—Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 53.4%53.8%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 91.1%93.1%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-HLESource 39.6%40.3%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 15.3%26.4%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 38.3%52.1%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 37.3%53.5%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Grok 4.5Result
CharXivSource 88.3%—Not comparable
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 77%—Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 77.3%80.4%Grok 4.5 leads
Design Arena WebsiteSource 13141325Grok 4.5 leads
Frequently Asked Questions (3)

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?

Grok 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 76.72 to 65.32. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 80.4% and 83.3%.

Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.7 versus 64.7. Inside this category, cursorBench32 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.5?

Grok 4.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.3 versus 81.9. Inside this category, GDPval-AA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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