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Claude 3 Sonnet vs Grok-2 mini

Grok-2 mini leads the LLM Stats Score 8.7 to 1.9.

Anthropic · xAI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok-2 mini leads the overall LLM Stats Score 8.7 to 1.9, ranking #263 overall.

In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Grok-2 mini wins 5; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude 3 Sonnet

  • you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output

Choose Grok-2 mini

  • overall performance matters — it scores 8.7 and ranks #263 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 5 of 5 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2024

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude 3 Sonnet
Anthropic
Grok-2 mini
xAI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
1.9
#307
8.7
#263
Reasoning
1.8
#296
8.3
#265
Coding
-1.4
#239
6.0
#187
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 5
5 of 5
Input price
$3.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
— / M
Context window
200,000
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Claude 3 Sonnet
Grok-2 mini
Math
7.7#256
16.0#204
Finance
3.4#172
15.8#113
Legal
3.4#161
15.8#97
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for Claude 3 Sonnet · 8 for Grok-2 mini

5 shared

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Grok-2 mini is better at 5 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).

Grok-2 mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Sep 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude 3 Sonnet specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3 Sonnet specifies output context (200,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
xAI
Grok-2 mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Sep 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude 3 Sonnet and Grok-2 mini support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Grok-2 mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.

Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

Grok-2 mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3 Sonnet was released on 2024-02-29, while Grok-2 mini was released on 2024-08-13.

Grok-2 mini is 6 months newer than Claude 3 Sonnet.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Feb 29, 2024

2.5 years ago

Grok-2 mini

Aug 13, 2024

2.1 years ago

5mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Sonnet and Grok-2 mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3 Sonnet
✓ Preferred
Grok-2 mini
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3 Sonnet vs Grok-2 mini.

Which is better, Claude 3 Sonnet or Grok-2 mini?

Grok-2 mini leads the LLM Stats Score 8.7 to 1.9. Claude 3 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Grok-2 mini is made by xAI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude 3 Sonnet compare to Grok-2 mini in benchmarks?

Claude 3 Sonnet scores ARC-C: 93.2%, GSM8k: 92.3%, HellaSwag: 89.0%, MGSM: 83.5%, BIG-Bench Hard: 82.9%. Grok-2 mini scores DocVQA: 93.2%, MMLU: 86.2%, HumanEval: 85.7%, MATH: 73.0%, MMLU-Pro: 72.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3 Sonnet and Grok-2 mini?

Claude 3 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Grok-2 mini supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3 Sonnet and Grok-2 mini?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (1.9 vs 8.7). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3 Sonnet and Grok-2 mini?

Claude 3 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and Grok-2 mini is developed by xAI.

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