GPT-4.1 vs Grok 4

Walkthrough of each test in our suite with scores (GPT-4.1 vs Grok 4) and ranking notes: 1) Tool calling: GPT-4.1 5 vs Grok 4 4 — GPT-4.1 ties for 1st ("tied for 1st with 16 other models out of 54 tested") while Grok 4 ranks 18 of 54. This implies more accurate function selection and argument sequencing for GPT-4.1 in our tests. 2) Constrained rewriting: GPT-4.1 5 vs Grok 4 4 — GPT-4.1 tied for 1st (with 4 others), Grok 4 rank 6 of 53; GPT-4.1 is measurably better at strict character/length compression. 3) Agentic planning: GPT-4.1 4 vs Grok 4 3 — GPT-4.1 ranks 16 of 54 vs Grok 4 at 42 of 54, so GPT-4.1 is stronger at goal decomposition and failure recovery in our tests. 4) Safety calibration: GPT-4.1 1 vs Grok 4 2 — Grok 4 wins here and ranks 12 of 55 vs GPT-4.1 at rank 32; Grok 4 is better at refusing harmful requests while permitting legitimate ones in our testing. The remaining measured categories are ties: structured output (4 vs 4; both rank mid-table), strategic analysis (5 vs 5; both tied for 1st), creative problem solving (3 vs 3; both rank 30), faithfulness (5 vs 5; both tied for 1st), classification (4 vs 4; both tied for 1st), long context (5 vs 5; both tied for 1st) , persona consistency (5 vs 5; both tied for 1st), and multilingual (5 vs 5; both tied for 1st). Notable external benchmarks present in the payload: GPT-4.1 scores 48.5% on SWE-bench Verified (Epoch AI), 83% on MATH Level 5, and 38.3% on AIME 2025 (these are Epoch AI results and shown to contextualize coding/math strengths); Grok 4 has no external SWE/MATH/AIME values in the payload. Also practical metadata: GPT-4.1 provides a 1,047,576-token context window vs Grok 4's 256,000-token window, which affects very long-document workflows.

Raw unit prices from the payload: GPT-4.1 input $2 / mTok and output $8 / mTok; Grok 4 input $3 / mTok and output $15 / mTok. Using a simple 50/50 split of input vs output tokens as an example, per 1M tokens GPT-4.1 costs roughly $5,000 ((0.5M/1k)$2 + (0.5M/1k)$8) while Grok 4 costs roughly $9,000 ((0.5M/1k)$3 + (0.5M/1k)$15). Scaling that linearly gives ~ $50k vs $90k for 10M tokens/month and ~ $500k vs $900k for 100M tokens/month. The gap matters for high-volume API customers and production services (startups, SaaS, high-traffic apps) where marginal cost per token drives unit economics; for low-volume or safety-critical workloads the higher Grok 4 cost may be acceptable.

Choose GPT-4.1 if you need: - The best blend of tool calling, constrained rewriting and agentic planning in our tests (tool calling 5 vs 4, constrained rewriting 5 vs 4, agentic planning 4 vs 3). - A much larger context window (1,047,576 tokens) and lower per-token cost (input $2 / mTok, output $8 / mTok). Choose Grok 4 if you need: - Stronger safety calibration in our testing (safety calibration 2 vs 1) and are willing to pay a premium (input $3 / mTok, output $15 / mTok). Use cases: pick GPT-4.1 for production APIs that call tools, enforce strict output formats, or process extremely long contexts; pick Grok 4 for workflows where conservative safety decisions are primary or when you accept higher cost for that behavior.