Grok 4.6 (xAI) vs GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI)
Grok 4.6 (xAI) is 87% cheaper than GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) ($8.00 vs $60.00 blended per 1M tokens).
Grok 4.6 (xAI) on xAI vs GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) on OpenAI — frontier flagships. Every figure in the table below is the value shown on each model's own endpoint page, with its source and verification date. What the makers declare about the models themselves is further down.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (xAI) | GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Input $/1M | $2 | $10 |
| Cached input $/1M | $0.5 | $1 |
| Output $/1M | $6 | $50 |
| Blended $/1M | $8 | $60 |
| Context window served | 256K | 1M |
| Max output served | 32K | 128K |
| Intelligence (Epoch) | 157 | 169 |
Highlighted cell = better on that row (lower price/latency, higher context/intelligence/throughput). "—" = not measured, or (cached input) no cache pricing published by that provider.
Independent benchmarks
Scores read on the public leaderboards on 2026-09-19 — no maker-reported numbers here (those live in the spec sheets below: a vendor's own harness, scaffold and pass@k make self-reported scores incomparable across vendors).
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 (xAI) | GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena text (Elo) | 1456 ±6 | 1480 ±12 |
| LMArena code (Elo) | 1618 ±10 | 1800 ±16 |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (% resolved) | 20.3 ±3.1 · Grok Build (high) | 58.2 ±2.8 · Codex (max) |
LMArena Elo comes from one arena with one voter pool, so the two cells compare directly. Terminal-Bench scores each model with the agent harness named in the cell — different harnesses, so no winner is highlighted on that row: part of the gap is the harness, not the model. Sources: tbench.ai (Apache-2.0) · LMArena (CC-BY-4.0).
What it costs at your volume
| Monthly workload | Grok 4.6 (xAI) | GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Side project · 5M in / 1M out | $16 | $100 |
| Production app · 50M in / 10M out | $160 | $1,000 |
| Heavy pipeline · 500M in / 100M out | $1,600 | $10,000 |
Straight token math from the verified prices above — no caching, no batch discounts. If your workload reuses prompts, cached input ($0.5 vs $1/1M) can shift this table substantially. Model your own traffic in the LLM cost calculator.
Neither price has moved since we started tracking them (2026-10-17). Full price history on each endpoint page.
Which to pick
Grok 4.6 (xAI) if…
- cost per token is the constraint — $8 vs $60 blended per 1M
GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) if…
- code is the workload — LMArena code Elo 1800 vs 1618
- general answer quality — LMArena text Elo 1480 vs 1456
- you need the longer served context — 1M vs 256K
Every line above is derived from a measured row on this page — nothing editorial. What the table can't weigh: rate limits, SDK ecosystem, data-retention terms — those are on each endpoint page.
Same weights, other hosts
The table at the top compares one endpoint per side. But the same model is often sold by several hosts — open weights re-hosted, or a closed model resold through clouds — at different prices, sometimes a bigger spread than the head-to-head itself.
grok-4.6 is sold by 2 hosts we track. Cheapest: xAI at $8/1M blended. All 2 priced side by side on the grok-4.6 page.
gpt-6-astra: single host tracked (OpenAI) — no cross-host spread to show.
What the makers declare
The table above compares two endpoints — what each host charges, how much of the window it serves, how fast it answers. This is the other register: what the maker declares about the weights, the same whichever host you buy from. Where a row here carries a different number from the same row above, both are true — one describes the model, the other describes the endpoint that serves it.
grok-4.6maker-declared
- Context window
- 500,000 tokens
- Parameters
- not published by the maker
- Active experts
- not published by the maker
- Weight precision
- not applicable — no weights publishedcurated
- License
- Proprietary — API onlycuratedScope: the licence on the published weights, and nothing else. It is not the maker's acceptable-use policy, which is a separate document, and it is not the contract you sign with whichever host you call — hosts set their own terms, which this index does not read.
- Knowledge cutoff
- February 1, 2026maker's docs · read 2026-09-07
- Modalities
- text · image → text
- Max output (official)
- not published by the makermaker's docs · read 2026-09-07
- Release date
- August 12, 2026maker's docs · read 2026-09-19
- Maker lifecycle status
- to verify
docs.x.ai · maker's documentation · read 2026-09-19 · 5 of 10 fields published by the maker
gpt-6-astramaker-declared
- Context window
- 1,050,000 tokens
- Parameters
- not published by the maker
- Active experts
- not published by the maker
- Weight precision
- not applicable — no weights publishedcurated
- License
- Proprietary — API onlycuratedScope: the licence on the published weights, and nothing else. It is not the maker's acceptable-use policy, which is a separate document, and it is not the contract you sign with whichever host you call — hosts set their own terms, which this index does not read.
- Knowledge cutoff
- April 30, 2026
- Modalities
- text · image → text
- Max output (official)
- 128,000 tokens
- Release date
- not published by the maker
- Maker lifecycle status
- to verify
developers.openai.com · maker's documentation · read 2026-09-19 · 5 of 10 fields published by the maker
Sources: Grok 4.6 (xAI) endpoint · GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) endpoint · Grok 4.6 (xAI) price verified 2026-10-17 · GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI) price verified 2026-10-17