Released on July 9, 2025, Grok 4 is Elon Musk’s xAI’s latest flagship model, designed to excel in academic reasoning and featuring a dedicated coding variant. Many articles and researchers believe that it is one of, if not the most impressive, models to date. But is that so? Let’s find out. For those seeking the best AI assistant for general purposes and coding, we’ve curated a detailed comparison between Grok 4 and Anthropic’s Claude 4 Sonnet. Let’s get going.
Background on the Developers
xAI and Grok 4
Founded in 2023 by Elon Musk, xAI aims to accelerate human scientific discovery through AI. Grok 4, their flagship model, is designed to provide helpful and truthful answers, often with a unique perspective inspired by science fiction references like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Grok 4 is positioned as a significant leap forward, with claims of surpassing PhD-level expertise in academic tasks and introducing specialized features like Grok 4 Code for developers.
Anthropic and Claude 4 Sonnet
Anthropic, established in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, focuses on building AI systems that are safe, interpretable, and aligned with human values. Claude models are known for their reliability and ethical considerations, making them popular in enterprise settings. Claude 4 Sonnet, the successor to Claude 3.7 Sonnet, is optimized for coding workflows and high-volume applications, balancing performance and cost-effectiveness.
Grok 4 vs Claude 4 Sonnet Availability
- Claude 4 Sonnet: Released as a part of Anthropic’s Claude 4 family, which also includes Claude Opus 4, Claude 4 Sonnet/Claude Sonnet 4 is available through Anthropic’s API, Bind AI, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, GitHub Copilot, and Databricks.
- Grok 4: Grok 4 is accessible through xAI’s platforms and X (formerly Twitter), with plans for broader API availability. Its recent release means it is still gaining traction among users.
Claude 4 Sonnet’s earlier release and integration with popular developer tools give it a head start in adoption, while Grok 4’s newer status suggests it may take time to reach similar levels of accessibility.
Grok 4 vs Claude 4 Sonnet for General Purposes
Grok 4
Grok 4 is designed to excel in academic and reasoning tasks, with xAI claiming it performs at a level surpassing PhD expertise across all subjects. Its benchmark performance is impressive:
- Humanity’s Last Exam (without tools): 25.4%, outperforming Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (21.6%) and OpenAI o3 (high) (21%).
- Humanity’s Last Exam (with tools): 44.4% for Grok 4 Heavy, significantly higher than Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (26.9%).
- ARC-AGI-2 Test: 16.2%, nearly twice that of Claude Opus 4, indicating strong reasoning capabilities.
Grok 4 also supports text modality, with vision and image generation capabilities planned for the near future. xAI’s roadmap includes a multi-modal agent in September 2025 and a video-generation model in October 2025, expanding its versatility.
Claude 4 Sonnet
Claude 4 Sonnet is optimized for high-volume applications, offering a balance of performance and cost. Key features include:
- Context Window: 200K tokens, enabling it to handle large codebases and complex tasks.
- Hybrid Reasoning Modes: Supports near-instant responses and extended thinking for deep, step-by-step problem-solving.
- Use Cases: Excels in code reviews, bug fixes, customer support agents, and AI assistants.
Claude 4 Sonnet’s focus on practical applications makes it a strong choice for developers and businesses needing reliable AI assistance.
Grok 4 vs Claude 4 Sonnet: General Purpose Comparison Table
Grok 4 vs Claude 4 Sonnet Coding Comparison
Coding is a critical area where both models aim to shine, but their approaches and current capabilities differ significantly.
Grok 4
Grok 4 introduces a dedicated variant, Grok 4 Code, designed specifically for developers. This variant assists with:
- Code Generation: Creating code for various programming languages.
- Bug Detection: Identifying errors in existing code.
- Contextual Development: Providing assistance tailored to specific project needs.
xAI has also announced plans to release a specialized AI coding model in August 2025, which could further enhance Grok 4’s coding capabilities. While specific coding benchmarks for Grok 4 are limited due to its recent release, its strong performance on reasoning tasks (e.g., 16.2% on ARC-AGI-2) suggests potential for handling complex coding challenges that require deep problem-solving.
Claude 4 Sonnet
Claude 4 Sonnet has established itself as a leading coding assistant, with several strengths:
- Integration with GitHub Copilot: Available to all paid GitHub Copilot plans, making it accessible within popular development environments Claude 4 Sonnet in GitHub Copilot.
- Coding Performance: Achieved 72.5% on the SWE-bench benchmark, indicating state-of-the-art performance in software engineering tasks like code generation, debugging, and refactoring.
- Hybrid Reasoning: Supports both quick code suggestions and extended thinking for complex coding workflows, such as handling large codebases or multi-step tasks.
- Context Window: Its 200K token context window allows it to manage extensive codebases and maintain coherence over long workflows Anthropic Claude 4 Sonnet Features.
Grok 4 vs Claude 4 Sonnet: Developer Experiences
- Claude 4 Sonnet: Developers praise its consistency and ability to catch bugs that human reviewers might miss. For example, Reddit communities have shared examples where Claude 4 Sonnet identified errors in complex algorithms. One user reported it being way better than Claude 3.7 Sonnet. However, some developers have reported issues with “hallucinations” of external class members, which can lead to errors in code generation.
- Grok 4: As a newer model, developer feedback is limited, but from what we have so far, the reception is mixed. While some early adopters are excited about the Grok 4 Code variant and its potential for advanced reasoning in coding tasks, others are calling it ‘slow’ and ‘bad at coding’.
Grok 4 vs Claude 4 Sonnet: Coding Features Comparison Table
Analysis
Claude 4 Sonnet currently holds the edge in coding due to its established track record, integration with developer tools, and strong benchmark performance. Its ability to handle large codebases and provide consistent, high-quality code makes it a reliable choice for immediate use. Grok 4, while promising, is still in its early stages, with its coding capabilities less documented. However, its superior reasoning scores and upcoming AI coding model suggest it could become a strong competitor, particularly for complex coding tasks requiring deep problem-solving.
Grok 4 Prompts to Test
Here are some coding prompts that you can use to test Grok 4’s capabilities and compare them with Claude 4 Sonnet here:
- Write a Python function that accepts a string and returns a new string where each character is repeated twice. For example, ‘abc’ should become ‘aabbcc’.
- Implement a binary search algorithm in Python that finds an element in a sorted list. Ensure the code handles the case where the element is not found.
- Create a Python class Person with attributes for name, age, and gender, and include a method that prints out a personalized greeting based on the attributes.
- Explain how to use Git to clone a repository, create a new branch, and push changes to the remote repository.
- Given a list of dictionary objects representing employees, write a Python function that sorts them by age in descending order.
- Describe the steps to deploy a basic Django app to Heroku, including setting up a PostgreSQL database and managing static files.
The Bottom Line
Choosing between Grok 4 and Claude 4 Sonnet depends on your specific coding needs. Claude 4 Sonnet is currently better for coding tasks, thanks to its strong performance, integration with tools like GitHub Copilot, and a larger 200K token context window, making it ideal for developers.
Grok 4, although newer, has potential with its Grok 4 Code variant and superior reasoning benchmarks. Its upcoming AI coding model in August 2025 could make it a strong contender for complex tasks, but its documentation is still limited.
For now, Claude 4 Sonnet is the safer option for developers, yet Grok 4’s anticipated updates make it worth monitoring. Testing both models is the best approach to see which fits your workflow as the AI landscape evolves. But if you want the best of all worlds (minus Grok), multiple model support (Claude 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and OpenAI o4-mini), built-in IDE, and affordable pricing, look no further than Bind AI! Find out why.