Claude Opus 4.6 vs Grok 4.5
Head-to-head comparison across 2benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Verdict
Claude Opus 4.6 leads for most workloads.
Based on BenchLM composite scores, July 2026.
Claude Opus 4.6
84
Grok 4.5
75
Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.6 #12 · Grok 4.5 unranked
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Grok 4.5 only becomes the better choice if agentic is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Category Radar
Head-to-Head by Category
Category Breakdown
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Δ | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic | 73.0 | → 10.3 | 83.3 |
| Coding | 64.1 | → 0.6 | 64.7 |
| Knowledge | 69.2 | — | — |
| Multimodal | 77.3 | — | — |
Operational Comparison
Claude Opus 4.6
Grok 4.5
$5 / $25
$2 / $6
40 t/s
N/A
1.78s
N/A
1M
500K
Quick Verdict
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Grok 4.5 only becomes the better choice if agentic is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Claude Opus 4.6 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 84 to 75. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Opus 4.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens for Grok 4.5. That is roughly 4.2x on output cost alone. Grok 4.5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude Opus 4.6 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Claude Opus 4.6 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 500K for Grok 4.5.
Benchmark Deep Dive
Frequently Asked Questions (3)
Which is better, Claude Opus 4.6 or Grok 4.5?
Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 84 to 75. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 65.4% and 83.3%.
Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Grok 4.5?
Grok 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 64.7 versus 64.1. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Opus 4.6 or Grok 4.5?
Grok 4.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.3 versus 73. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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