LLM Reference

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 $0.50/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

Grok-2 is ~500% cheaper at $0.50/1M; pay for Claude 3.5 Sonnet only for coding workflow support.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalClaude 3.5 SonnetGrok-2
Best forreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agentsreasoning-heavy apps
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsCoding, RAG, and Long context
Context window200k128k
Cheapest output$15/1M tokens$0.50/1M tokens
Provider routes6 tracked1 tracked
Shared benchmarksHumanEval leader3 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when...
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet holds a shared-benchmark lead on HumanEval, ahead by 3.6 points.
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Claude 3.5 Sonnet for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose Grok-2 when...
  • Grok-2 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.50/1M tokens.
  • Local decision data tags Grok-2 for Coding, RAG, and Long context.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate Grok-2

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

$6,150

Cheapest tracked route/tier: GCP Vertex AI

Grok-2

$525

Cheapest tracked route/tier: SiliconFlow

Estimated monthly gap: $5,625. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Claude 3.5 Sonnet -> Grok-2
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Grok-2; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Grok-2 is $14.50/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
Grok-2 -> Claude 3.5 Sonnet
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Grok-2 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet is $14.50/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet adds Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2024-06-202024-08-01
Context window200k128k
Parameters70B—
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyDecoder Only
LicenseProprietaryGrok License
OpennessProprietaryOpen weights
WeightsNot releasedUnknown
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2024-04-

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeClaude 3.5 SonnetGrok-2
Input price$3/1M tokens$0.50/1M tokens
Output price$15/1M tokens$0.50/1M tokens
Providers
GCP Vertex AIAWS BedrockAnthropicOpenRouterMicrosoft FoundryReplicate API
SiliconFlow

Capabilities

CapabilityClaude 3.5 SonnetGrok-2
VisionYesNo
MultimodalYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
JSON / Tool useYesNo
Structured outputsYesYes
Code executionYesNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetGrok-2
HumanEval92.088.4
Chatbot Arena1340.01255.0
Massive Multitask Language Understanding88.787.5

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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.