Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5
Compare Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.5 API pricing: input/output token costs, cache pricing, context windows, workload estimates, and routing fit.
Claude Sonnet 5
anthropic · claude-sonnet-5
- Input
- $2
- Output
- $10
- Context
- 1M
Grok 4.5
xai · grok-4.5
- Input
- $2
- Output
- $6
- Context
- 500K
Quick take
Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower input price at $2 per 1M input tokens. Grok 4.5 is cheaper for the example blended workload below. Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger context window at 1M tokens.
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 if...
- Claude Sonnet 5 is safer for long documents, repository analysis, and RAG prompts because it has the larger context window.
- Claude Sonnet 5 gives more room for long generated answers, reports, or code output.
Choose Grok 4.5 if...
- Grok 4.5 is the better default for cost-sensitive traffic and repeated high-volume calls.
Example workload cost
Estimates use input tokens plus 20% output tokens. They exclude provider discounts, cache hits, and tool/search surcharges.
| Workload | Claude Sonnet 5 | Grok 4.5 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M input + 200K output | $4.00 | $3.20 | Grok 4.5 |
| 10M input + 2M output | $40.00 | $32.00 | Grok 4.5 |
| 100M input + 20M output | $400.00 | $320.00 | Grok 4.5 |
Context, output, and capability fit
Claude Sonnet 5 provides the larger context window. Check max output separately when the task needs long reports, code generation, or full-document rewrites.
- Claude Sonnet 5 max output
- 128K
- Grok 4.5 max output
- n/a
- Claude Sonnet 5 features
- prompt caching, function calling, vision
- Grok 4.5 features
- prompt caching, function calling, vision
Risk notes for Claude Sonnet 5
- No major capability risk is flagged in this snapshot, but provider pages should still be verified before production routing.
Risk notes for Grok 4.5
- No major capability risk is flagged in this snapshot, but provider pages should still be verified before production routing.
Routing tags
frontierreasoningcodingagentsenterprise-raglong-contextmultimodalcache-friendlyrag