Grok 4.6 Leaps to AI Frontier, Matches OpenAI at $2 Per Million Tokens
7 Sources
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Grok Gets Cursor-Driven Upgrade, Claims to Be Competitive With Top Models
Thus far in its short lifespan, the AI model Grok is probably best known for being used to mass-produce non-consensual nude images and for declaring itself MechaHitler. So it's an uphill battle to convince people to use it for coding and knowledge work. But for those heavily invested in keeping
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SpaceXAI debuts Grok 4.6, overtaking Kimi K3's performance and vaulting to the world's fourth best on Artificial Analysis
Elon Musk's company SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI, has released Grok 4.6, its latest frontier AI model, with a focus on long-running agents, coding and knowledge work -- and a pricing strategy designed to make those workloads cheaper to run. The model scores 61 on the third-party Artificial
[3]
SpaceXAI releases flagship Grok 4.6 model with advanced reasoning capabilities
SpaceXAI today released Grok 4.6, a large language model that it says can outperform Anthropic PBC's Claude Fable 5 in some areas. SpaceXAI was known as xAI until last month. The Elon Musk-founded artificial intelligence provider rebranded in connection with its acquisition by SpaceX Corp. In
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SpaceXAI launches Grok 4.6 as Musk plans to train future models on employee data
SpaceXAI launched Grok 4.6 on Wednesday, and Elon Musk said future versions will be trained on "the sum total of all SpaceX information," including employee output and thinking. Grok 4.6 scored 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, matching OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol and trailing Anthropic's
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Musk's Grok 4.6 Jumps to AI Frontier, Matches OpenAI at a Fraction of the Price Grok 4.6 Matches OpenAI G
Grok 4.6, released Wednesday by Elon Musk's SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), scored 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, which matches OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol Max and trails only Anthropic's leading models, according to independent benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis. Grok charges $2 per million
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Elon Musk's SpaceXAI Enters The Big League With Grok 4.6, Offering Fable 5-Level Performance At An 80 Percent Discount
Elon Musk's SpaceXAI was largely written off as a has-been AI enterprise a while back. And yet, it has proven its detractors egregiously wrong with the all-new Grok 4.6, an AI model that goes toe-to-toe with Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol at a fraction of price. Grok 4.6 achieves a
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xAI introduces Grok 4.6 with long-running agents and interactive AI capabilities
xAI has introduced Grok 4.6, its latest AI model focused on long-running agents and interactive and visual work. The model builds on Grok 4.5 and is designed to handle complex tasks across multiple steps, including researching topics, analyzing information, working across codebases, and turning
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SpaceXAI released Grok 4.6 scoring 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, matching OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol while undercutting its price by more than half. The frontier AI model shows major gains in agentic coding and knowledge work benchmarks, fueled by Cursor acquisition data and extended supplemental training runs.
SpaceXAI Releases Grok 4.6 With Frontier Performance
SpaceXAI released Grok 4.6 on Wednesday, marking a dramatic return to the frontier AI model race after months of lagging behind competitors
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. The model scored 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, matching OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol Max and trailing only Anthropic Claude Fable 5 and Claude Opus 52
. This represents a five-point improvement over Grok 4.5 and a 23-point jump from Grok 4.34
.Elon Musk claimed on X that Grok 4.6 is "objectively #1 when considering intelligence, speed & cost," though the model matched rather than surpassed its main competitor
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. The pricing strategy supports this assertion: Grok 4.6 costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens, less than half of GPT-5.6 Sol's $5 and $30 pricing5
.Agentic Coding and Knowledge Work Benchmarks Show Strong Gains
Grok 4.6 demonstrates substantial improvements in agentic coding and knowledge work benchmarks, areas SpaceXAI specifically targeted during development
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. On CursorBench v3.2, the model scored 69.9%, up from 66.7% for Grok 4.5, though Claude Fable 5 Max leads at 70.5%2
. The model achieved 65.9% on DeepSWE v1.1, a significant jump from 54%, while GPT-5.6 Sol Max scored 73%2
.For agentic tasks, Grok 4.6 reached 57.5% on APEX-Agents, a 10.4-point increase over Grok 4.5's 47.1%, narrowly exceeding GPT-5.6 Sol Max's 56.7%
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. On AA-Briefcase, which evaluates knowledge work projects that would take humans weeks to complete, Grok 4.6 achieved an Elo score of 1,577, narrowly exceeding Claude Fable 5 Max's 1,5742
. The model completed knowledge-work tasks in approximately 53 turns and 0.5 billion input tokens on average, significantly more efficient than Claude Opus 5's 103 turns and 2.0 billion input tokens4
.Cursor Acquisition Powers Advanced Reasoning Capabilities
The performance leap comes after SpaceXAI's $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, the AI coding platform
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. Grok 4.5 was the first version trained on Cursor's real-world usage data, and Grok 4.6 underwent an even longer supplemental training run than its predecessor1
. SpaceXAI used supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning on curated model-generated reasoning and technical data alongside engineering data from Cursor2
.The company used Grok 4.5 to regenerate supervised fine-tuning trajectories across reasoning levels, agent harnesses, STEM, software engineering and knowledge work, filtering problematic trajectories with model-based checks
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. Grok 4.6 maintains the same 1.5 trillion parameter V9 base as Grok 4.5, achieving performance gains through training improvements rather than model size increases4
.Related Stories
Availability Through Cursor, Grok Build, and API Partners
Grok 4.6 launched immediately in Cursor and Grok Build, SpaceXAI's answer to Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, available in the $30-per-month SuperGrok plan
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. The model is also accessible through OpenRouter, Vercel, and Cloudflare3
. SpaceXAI is providing twice the included usage for Grok 4.6 in Cursor and Grok Build during the first week2
.The release came one day after SpaceXAI launched Grok Bot, a beta system for assigning AI agents to complete designated tasks as virtual employees
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. Musk announced at an all-hands meeting that future Grok versions will be trained on "the sum total of all SpaceX information," including employee output and thinking, though the company provided no details on data collection methods or opt-out options4
.Market Implications and Future Development Plans
Polymarket now gives xAI a 9% chance of having the best AI model by year-end, up from approximately 3% before Grok 4.6's release
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. Anthropic leads at 67%, while Google has fallen to fourth place behind xAI for the first time this year at 6%5
. Morgan Stanley suggested investors may be undervaluing SpaceX's AI business, setting a bull case target of $600 per share if Grok continues gaining traction through Cursor5
.Musk stated on SpaceX's August 4 earnings call that Grok 4.7 is expected in three to four weeks with a target of 2.1 trillion parameters, and Grok 5 is planned before the end of 2026
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. SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen disclosed the company had contracted $6.7 billion in new cloud services revenue over a six-month period beginning in October4
. Musk also claimed SpaceX's AI revenue would "definitely" exceed all other company revenue in September, compared to Q2 2026 AI revenue of $2.56 billion versus approximately $5.25 billion from Starlink connectivity and space products combined4
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