Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Grok-2
Claude 3.5 Sonnet (2024) and Grok-2 (2024) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and xAI. Claude 3.5 Sonnet ships a 200K-token context window, while Grok-2 ships a 128K-token context window. On HumanEval, Claude 3.5 Sonnet leads by 3.6 pts. On pricing, Grok-2 costs $0.5/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Grok-2 is ~500% cheaper at $0.5/1M; pay for Claude 3.5 Sonnet only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-06-20 | 2024-08-01 |
| Context window | 200K | 128K |
| Parameters | 70B | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Unknown | Unknown |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Grok-2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.5/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.5/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Grok-2 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Function calling | Yes | No |
| Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Grok-2 |
|---|---|---|
| HumanEval | 92.0 | 88.4 |
| Chatbot Arena | 1340.0 | 1255.0 |
| Massive Multitask Language Understanding | 88.7 | 87.5 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, HumanEval has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 92 and Grok-2 at 88.4, with Claude 3.5 Sonnet ahead by 3.6 points; Chatbot Arena has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 1340 and Grok-2 at 1255, with Claude 3.5 Sonnet ahead by 85 points; Massive Multitask Language Understanding has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 88.7 and Grok-2 at 87.5, with Claude 3.5 Sonnet ahead by 1.2 points. The largest visible gap is 85 points on Chatbot Arena, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint differs most on vision: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, multimodal input: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, function calling: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and code execution: Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Both models share reasoning mode and structured outputs, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude 3.5 Sonnet lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while Grok-2 lists $0.5/1M input and $0.5/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Grok-2 lower by about $6.1 per million blended tokens. Availability is 6 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when coding workflow support, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Grok-2 when provider fit and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Grok-2?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200K tokens, while Grok-2 supports 128K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Grok-2?
Grok-2 is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Grok-2 costs $0.5/1M input and $0.5/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Grok-2 open source?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is listed under Unknown. Grok-2 is listed under Unknown. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Grok-2?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Grok-2?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Grok-2?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenRouter, and Microsoft Foundry. Grok-2 is available on SiliconFlow. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.