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Grok 4.6 vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Comparing Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Meituan · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

On price, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is roughly 5.7x 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 LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

  • cost matters — it's about 5.7x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Meituan
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
$1.20 / M
Context window
500,000
128,000
Released
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
License
Proprietary
MIT

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601don'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

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 costs less

For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 6.7x more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 5.0x more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($1.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Grok 4.6 is more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok 4.6
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$6.00
Best providerxAI
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601's 128,000 tokens. Only LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 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

Text
Images
Audio
Video

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 uses MIT.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Grok 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 was released on 2026-01-14.

Grok 4.6 is 7 months newer than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601.

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

7mo newer
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Jan 14, 2026

7 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601'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 LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601's cutoff date.

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

—

Provider Availability

Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is available from Meituan.

Grok 4.6

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $6.00/1M

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601.

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 (Meituan) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok 4.6 compare to LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 scores AIME 2025: 99.6%, Tau2 Telecom: 99.3%, Tau2 Retail: 88.6%, LiveCodeBench: 82.8%, GPQA: 80.5%.

Is Grok 4.6 cheaper than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 6.7x cheaper for input tokens. Grok 4.6 costs $2.00/M input and $6.00/M output via xai. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via meituan.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K tokens and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601?

Key differences include context window (500K vs 128K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.30/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.6 and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is developed by Meituan.

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