R1 0528 vs Grok 4
R1 0528 is the better pick for most developer and tool-integrated workflows in our testing — it wins 4 of 7 benchmarks including tool_calling and agentic_planning. Grok 4 wins on strategic_analysis and offers multimodal input plus a 256k context window, but at a much higher price point ($3/$15 vs R1's $0.5/$2.15 per mTok).
deepseek
R1 0528
Benchmark Scores
External Benchmarks
Pricing
Input
$0.500/MTok
Output
$2.15/MTok
modelpicker.net
xai
Grok 4
Benchmark Scores
External Benchmarks
Pricing
Input
$3.00/MTok
Output
$15.00/MTok
modelpicker.net
Benchmark Analysis
Head-to-head across our measured tasks: R1 0528 wins creative_problem_solving (4 vs 3), tool_calling (5 vs 4), safety_calibration (4 vs 2), and agentic_planning (5 vs 3). Grok 4 wins strategic_analysis (5 vs 4). They tie on structured_output (4), constrained_rewriting (4), faithfulness (5), classification (4), long_context (5), persona_consistency (5), and multilingual (5). Context and rankings: R1 0528 is tied for 1st on tool_calling among 54 models (
Pricing Analysis
Pricing difference (R1 0528 input $0.50/mTok, output $2.15/mTok; Grok 4 input $3/mTok, output $15/mTok) is large and material at scale. Assuming a 50/50 split of input/output tokens: per 1M total tokens R1 costs $1,325 (500 mTok input = $250; 500 mTok output = $1,075). Grok 4 costs $9,000 per 1M total tokens (500 mTok input = $1,500; 500 mTok output = $7,500). At 10M total tokens/month: R1 ≈ $13,250 vs Grok 4 ≈ $90,000. At 100M total tokens/month: R1 ≈ $132,500 vs Grok 4 ≈ $900,000. High-volume apps, price-sensitive startups, and applications with many short interactions should prefer R1 0528 for cost efficiency; teams that require multimodal inputs or can justify premium accuracy on strategic reasoning may accept Grok 4's higher bill.
Real-World Cost Comparison
How We Test
We test every model against our 12-benchmark suite covering tool calling, agentic planning, creative problem solving, safety calibration, and more. Each test is scored 1–5 by an LLM judge. Read our full methodology.