Grok 4.6 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Comparing Grok 4.6 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
xAI · Meta · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok 4.6 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is roughly 3.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Grok 4.6
- you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
Choose Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 3.4x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok 4.6 and Llama 3.1 405B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 2.2x more expensive than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 6.7x more expensive than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok 4.6 is more expensive than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Only Llama 3.1 405B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 405B Instruct does not.
Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Grok 4.6
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct uses Llama 3.1 Community License.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.
Grok 4.6 is 25 months newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.
Aug 12, 2026
1 weeks ago
2.1yr newerJul 23, 2024
2.1 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's cutoff date.
Feb 2026
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Provider Availability
Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Fireworks, Bedrock, Together, Hyperbolic, Google, Replicate.
Grok 4.6
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.