Model comparison

Grok 4.3 vs Sonar

Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.3 xAI

43.8

Rank #86 Confirmed

Sonar Perplexity

38.5

Rank #187 Confirmed

Summary

  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.3 leads 35.9 to 21.1.
  • Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $2.50 for Grok 4.3.
  • Grok 4.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

Grok 4.3 and Sonar specifications
Grok 4.3Sonar
ProviderxAIPerplexity
Noometry Index43.838.5
Released2026-04-172024-01-01
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M128K
Max output30K4K
Input $ / M tokens$1.25$1
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$1
Results tracked407

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.3 leads

Grok 4.3: 41.6 (#121), Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
LMArena WebDev1357—
SciCode47.3%—
WeirdML49.9%—
LiveBench Coding—35.1%
LMArena Coding1415—
ALE-Bench944.17—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Grok 4.3: 27.7 (#99), Sonar: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
GDP.pdf8%—
LMArena Search1165—
Vending-Bench 235.26—

Reasoning Grok 4.3 leads

Grok 4.3: 35.9 (#68), Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
NYT Connections (extended)55.2%—
CritPt8%—
Chess Puzzles25%—
LiveBench Reasoning—46.3%
LMArena Hard Prompts1396—
DTBench90.7%—
LiveBench Data Analysis—37.9%
LMCA38.3%—
Epoch Capabilities Index149.16—
ForecastBench60.3—
LiveBench—46.9%

Math Grok 4.3 leads

Grok 4.3: 46.0 (#74), Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)42.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 414.6%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202593.3%—
ProofBench11%—
LiveBench Math—41.6%
LMArena Math1388—

Knowledge Not comparable

Grok 4.3: 52.5 (#62), Sonar: —

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
GPQA Diamond88.8%—
SimpleQA Verified33.2%—
LMArena Expert1385—

Multimodal Not comparable

Grok 4.3: 31.6 (#104), Sonar: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
LMArena Vision1229—
Blueprint-Bench 20%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Grok 4.3: 50.5 (#120), Sonar: —

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
LMArena Non-English1385—
LMArena Chinese1422—
LMArena French1412—
LMArena German1395—
LMArena Japanese1379—
LMArena Korean1356—
LMArena Russian1399—
LMArena Spanish1398—

Instruction Following Too close to call

Grok 4.3: 72.1 (#140), Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
LiveBench Instruction Following—76.2%
LMArena Instruction Following1366—

Long Context Not comparable

Grok 4.3: 42.5 (#123), Sonar: —

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
LMArena Longer Query1393—

Writing & Preference Grok 4.3 leads

Grok 4.3: 58.5 (#118), Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.3Sonar
LMArena Text1397—
LMArena Creative Writing1380—
EQ-Bench 41075—
LMArena Multi-Turn1406—
LiveBench Language—44.1%

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.3 better than Sonar?

Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 or Sonar?

Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Grok 4.3 lists at $1.25 and $2.50.

Is Grok 4.3 or Sonar better for coding?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.6 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.3 and Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.3 has 40 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.

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