ANTHROPIC VS XAI
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok Build 0.1
Grok Build 0.1 is about 8.0x cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8 on a blended 3:1 input:output rate — the same 10K-in/2K-out request costs $0.014 vs $0.10. Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window (1,000,000 vs 256,000 tokens).
Pricing verified
API pricing per 1M tokens
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Blended (3:1 mix) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.8 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $10.00 |
| Grok Build 0.1 | $1.00 | $2.00 | $1.25 |
Rates from official Anthropic pricing and official xAI pricing, checked 2026-08-11.
What a real workload costs
Example: one request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens, then that request at 100,000 runs per month.
| Model | Per request (10K in / 2K out) | Per month (100K requests) | Monthly delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.8 | $0.10 | $10,000 | +$8,600 |
| Grok Build 0.1 | $0.014 | $1,400 | — |
Model your own prompt sizes and volumes in the token cost analyzer, or check caching savings with the prompt caching calculator.
Specs side by side
| Spec | Claude Opus 4.8 | Grok Build 0.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | xAI |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens |
| Model class | Reasoning | General text |
| Tokenizer | Proprietary (counts estimated) | Proprietary (counts estimated) |
Count tokens for each model on its own page: Claude Opus 4.8 token counter and Grok Build 0.1 token counter. All Anthropic models are on the Claude Token Counter. All xAI models are on the Grok Token Counter.
FAQ
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok Build 0.1 FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Grok Build 0.1?
Grok Build 0.1 is cheaper. At rates checked 2026-08-11, Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, while Grok Build 0.1 costs $1.00 input / $2.00 output — about a 8.0x difference on a typical 3:1 input-heavy workload.
How much does a real request cost on Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok Build 0.1?
A request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens costs about $0.10 on Claude Opus 4.8 and $0.014 on Grok Build 0.1. At 100,000 such requests per month that is $10,000 vs $1,400 — a difference of $8,600 per month.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or Grok Build 0.1?
Claude Opus 4.8. It supports 1,000,000 tokens of context versus 256,000 tokens — roughly 750,000 English words in one request.
Do Claude Opus 4.8 and Grok Build 0.1 count tokens the same way?
Not exactly. Claude Opus 4.8 uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates) and Grok Build 0.1 uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates). The same prompt will tokenize differently, which shifts effective cost per word.