Claude vs Grok
Claude and Grok side by side: what each one is, verified plan pricing and install commands where we have them, and the full review of each.
Claude
Daily DriverAnthropic's model family. As of October 2026: Opus 5.5 as the default, Fable 5.1 for the hardest long-horizon work, Sonnet 5.5 for speed, Haiku 5.5 for cost. 1M context. Max from $100/mo.
Grok
xAI's model family, now documented under the SpaceXSI (SpaceX Super Intelligence) name. Grok 4.7 (September 21, 2026) has a 500K context at $2/$6 per million tokens. OpenAI-compatible API.
At a glance
| Field | | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI Models | AI Models |
| Website | claude.ai | x.ai |
| Pricing | Free - $0: chat on web, desktop and mobile, Artifacts, Claude Design, Slides and Docs; Pro - $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front): more usage, Claude Code, Projects, more Claude models; Max - from $100/mo: choose 5x or 20x Pro usage, plus $100 to $200/mo in API credits; Team - Standard seat $25/seat/mo ($20 billed annually), Premium seat $125/seat/mo ($100 billed annually), 2 to 150 seats; Enterprise - $20/seat/mo billed annually plus usage at API rates, 20-seat minimum; API - per million tokens input/output: Fable 5.1 $10/$50, Opus 5.5 $4/$20, Sonnet 5.5 $2/$10, Haiku 5.5 from $0.10/$0.50 | grok-4.7 - $2 input / $0.50 cached input / $6 output per 1M tokens below 200K prompt tokens; $4 / $1 / $12 above 200K; Grok 4.7 Fast - 2x standard token rates (1.5x for long context), only in Cursor and Grok Build, billed through your plan there; Code Execution tool - $5 per 1K calls |
| Install | Not verified yet | pip install xai-sdk or pip install openai or npm install ai @ai-sdk/xai zod |
| Models | The current lineup is Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5, all with 1M token context; Anthropic recommends starting with Opus 5.5. In the apps you pick a model in the model selector: Free gets Sonnet and Haiku, paid plans add Opus, and Fable runs on usage credits on Pro and up to 50% of weekly limits on Max. | grok-4.7 is the recommended model for code and chat, with a 500K context window, a May 2026 knowledge cutoff and reasoning_effort of low, medium, high (default) or xhigh. grok-4.6, grok-4.5, grok-4.3 and grok-4.20 remain listed; set the model per request, and use the <model>-latest alias to track new versions through the OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://api.x.ai/v1. |
| Last verified | October 27, 2026 | October 29, 2026 |
In Depth
Claude
Claude is the model family powering my entire workflow. As of October 2026 Anthropic's lineup is Claude Opus 5.5, its recommended starting point for most workloads, Claude Fable 5.1 for demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work, Claude Sonnet 5.5 for the best balance of speed and intelligence, and Claude Haiku 5.5 for high-volume, latency-sensitive tasks. All four have a 1M token context window, which means they can take in entire codebases. I'm on the Max plan (from $100/mo), which covers heavy Claude Code usage. In my experience Claude is the strongest model family for coding work. It's also what powers this site's AI features via the Anthropic API.
Grok
Grok is xAI's language model family. As of October 2026 the recommended API model for code and chat is Grok 4.7 (grok-4.7), released September 21, 2026, with a 500K token context window, text and image input, a May 2026 knowledge cutoff, and reasoning effort from low up to xhigh. It costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens below 200K prompt tokens, and $4 and $12 above that. The API works with the OpenAI SDK by pointing it at api.x.ai, making it a drop-in replacement in existing codebases, and a per-model alias can track new versions automatically. Grok 4.7 Fast, at 2x standard token rates, is available only inside Cursor and Grok Build, billed through your plan there. Older models such as grok-4.6, grok-4.5, grok-4.3 and grok-4.20 remain listed if you need to pin a version.
FAQ
Answers taken from each tool's verified fact sheet, with the date it was last checked.
How much does Claude cost?
As of October 27, 2026: Free - $0: chat on web, desktop and mobile, Artifacts, Claude Design, Slides and Docs; Pro - $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front): more usage, Claude Code, Projects, more Claude models; Max - from $100/mo: choose 5x or 20x Pro usage, plus $100 to $200/mo in API credits; Team - Standard seat $25/seat/mo ($20 billed annually), Premium seat $125/seat/mo ($100 billed annually), 2 to 150 seats; Enterprise - $20/seat/mo billed annually plus usage at API rates, 20-seat minimum; API - per million tokens input/output: Fable 5.1 $10/$50, Opus 5.5 $4/$20, Sonnet 5.5 $2/$10, Haiku 5.5 from $0.10/$0.50. Source: Claude pricing, Models overview, Claude release notes.
Which models does Claude use?
As of October 27, 2026: The current lineup is Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5, all with 1M token context; Anthropic recommends starting with Opus 5.5. In the apps you pick a model in the model selector: Free gets Sonnet and Haiku, paid plans add Opus, and Fable runs on usage credits on Pro and up to 50% of weekly limits on Max.
How much does Grok cost?
As of October 29, 2026: grok-4.7 - $2 input / $0.50 cached input / $6 output per 1M tokens below 200K prompt tokens; $4 / $1 / $12 above 200K; Grok 4.7 Fast - 2x standard token rates (1.5x for long context), only in Cursor and Grok Build, billed through your plan there; Code Execution tool - $5 per 1K calls. Source: Models, Grok 4.7 model page, API pricing, Quickstart, Release notes.
How do I install Grok?
Official install commands as of October 29, 2026: pip install xai-sdk or pip install openai or npm install ai @ai-sdk/xai zod.
Which models does Grok use?
As of October 29, 2026: grok-4.7 is the recommended model for code and chat, with a 500K context window, a May 2026 knowledge cutoff and reasoning_effort of low, medium, high (default) or xhigh. grok-4.6, grok-4.5, grok-4.3 and grok-4.20 remain listed; set the model per request, and use the <model>-latest alias to track new versions through the OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://api.x.ai/v1.
