Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) vs GPT-4.1
Benchmarks, API Token Pricing, Context Window & Speed Comparison
Related topics (12)
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) by xAI and GPT-4.1 by OpenAI represent two of the frontier AI models analyzed in our comprehensive 2026 AI benchmark and LLM comparison. In this head-to-head evaluation, we examine API token pricing, context window specifications, inference speed (tokens per second), and empirical reasoning performance. From a pure economic perspective, GPT-4.1 holds a notable pricing advantage for token ingestion. On output generation, GPT-4.1 is more economical per million generated tokens. In data-heavy architectures requiring extensive repository or document analysis, GPT-4.1 provides an expanded memory horizon with 1,048K tokens. In latency-sensitive production environments, Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads in tokens-per-second throughput, making it ideal for real-time conversational agents and high-concurrency workflows. Below is the complete empirical head-to-head breakdown across cost, speed, context, and capability matrices.
Changez et Comparez les Modèles
Select any AI models from our verified benchmark database to generate live side-by-side matrices.
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning)
Agentique rapiderapide, direct Grok modèle conçu pour responsive agentic appel d'outils, rapide codage, et en temps réel en direct assistance sans raisonnement latence.
$3.00 / 1M
$15.00 / 1M
1M tokens
61.5%
GPT-4.1
Bourreau de travail à contexte longproduction bourreau de travail avec un 1M-token fenêtre de contexte et markedly improved instruction following.
$2.00 / 1M
$8.00 / 1M
1.05M tokens
54.6%
Différences Clés en un Coup d’Œil
- GPT-4.1 is 1.7x cheaper for API usage (input + output tokens combined).
- GPT-4.1 has a larger context window (1M vs 1M tokens).
- Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) is faster at 135 tok/s vs 110 tok/s.
- Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) leads on SWE-bench coding (61.5% vs 54.6%).
| Caractéristique | Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Composite reasoning & knowledge score (0-100) | 62 | 48 |
Provider | xAI | OpenAI |
Input Price Cost per million input tokens | $3.00 / 1M | $2.00 / 1M |
Output Price Cost per million output tokens | $15.00 / 1M | $8.00 / 1M |
Blended Price Weighted 7:2:1 cache:input:output per 1M | $2.63 / 1M | $1.55 / 1M |
Context Window Maximum input + output tokens | 1M tokens~1,500 A4 pages of text | 1.05M tokens~1,571 A4 pages of text |
Max Output Tokens Per single request | 66K | 33K |
Throughput Speed Tokens generated per second | 135 tok/s | 110 tok/s |
SWE-bench Verified Real-world software engineering | 61.5% | 54.6% |
GPQA Diamond Graduate-level reasoning | 65.4% | 65% |
Cached Input Price Prompt caching discount per 1M tokens | $0.75 / 1M | $0.50 / 1M |
Qui gagne où ?
At-a-glance decision frameworkScores de Benchmarks Vérifiés
Official evaluation metrics verified by independent third-party research labs.
Industry benchmark evaluating real-world GitHub issue resolution and multi-file debugging.
Challenging questions created by domain experts to test complex PhD-level reasoning.
Hardened reasoning and academic knowledge benchmark with reduced lucky-guess probability.
Crowdsourced human preference evaluation based on blind, head-to-head model battles.
Extremely difficult, closed-ended questions spanning the frontier of human expert knowledge.
Autonomous multi-step tasks executed inside a real command-line terminal environment.
Research-grade coding problems drawn from real scientific and numerical workloads.
Contamination-free competitive programming problems collected continuously over time.
American Invitational Mathematics Examination — multi-step Olympiad-level reasoning.
Accuracy when reasoning over very large inputs that fill the model context window.
Tokens emitted per second during active generation streaming.
Latence et Temps de Réponse
Time to first token (TTFT) and estimated end-to-end response time for a typical 500-token response.
Simulateur Interactif de Coût de Tokens
Adjust sliders to calculate projected monthly cloud API spending with prompt caching discounts.
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Blazing-rapide response temps avec 135 tokens/sec débit et 420ms temps-à-premier-token
- complet 1M-token fenêtre de contexte sans raisonnement token overhead
- Precise structuré JSON outputs et fiable external appel d'outils
- natif visuel multimodal ingestion
Considerations & Trade-offs
- manque d'étendu chaîne de pensée vérification pour multi-stage mathématiques et logique proofs
- peut struggle avec nuanced multi-étapes code refactorisation sans external linters
GPT-4.1 · Strengths & Key Advantages
- massif 1M-token fenêtre de contexte à un faible prix
- Excellent instruction following et codage précision
- solide structuré extraction pour agent pipelines
- fiable à long contexte recall up à roughly 300K tokens
Considerations & Trade-offs
- No raisonnement mode, so il trails o3 et GPT-5 sur multi-étapes problems
- contexte beyond ~300K tokens degrades dans précision
Token Use & Task Economics
Estimated cost and token consumption to complete one representative agentic task.
| Metric | Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
Cost per Task Estimated USD to finish one task | $0.88 | $0.72 |
Output Tokens / Task Tokens generated per task | 35K | 52K |
Reasoning Tokens / Task Thinking tokens burned per task | 0K | 0K |
Spécifications Techniques
Architecture, release timeline, capabilities, and modalities.
| Caractéristique | Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Official API Model ID (SDK) | grok-4-20-non-reasoning-latest | gpt-4-1 |
| API Protocol | xAI REST API (OpenAI-Compatible) | OpenAI Responses API & Chat Completions v1 |
| Release Date | 2026-03 | 2025-04 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | November 2025 | June 2024 |
| Architecture | Colossus-Scale Sparse MoE | Dense multimodal transformer |
| Parameters | Confidential | Confidential |
| Enterprise Rate Limits (RPM / TPM) | 5,000 – 15,000 RPM (Production Tier) · 4,000,000 – 10,000,000 TPM | 10,000 – 30,000 RPM (Tier 5 Enterprise) · 4,000,000 – 10,000,000 TPM |
| Long-Context Tier (>128K/200K) | Flat rate ($3/1M in) across full 1000K window | Flat rate ($2/1M in) across full 1048K window |
| Prompt Cache Policy & TTL | Cached input at $0.75/1M tokens | Automatic prefix caching at $0.5/1M (no extra cache-write fee) |
| Computer Use / GUI Agent | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) | Supported (Screen coordinate grounding, browser & desktop GUI action loops) |
| MCP & Parallel Tool Calling | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema |
| Web Search Grounding & Sandbox | Real-time Web & X (Twitter) Search Grounding + Code Execution | Native Web Search tool + Hosted Code Interpreter & File Search RAG |
| Official Fine-Tuning Support | API Prompt Engineering & RAG Distillation | Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Direct Preference (DPO) & Reinforcement Fine-Tuning (RFT) |
| Multimodal Token Billing | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) · Vision (~258–765 tokens per image tile) | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) · Vision (~258–765 tokens per image tile) |
| Quantization & Min GPU VRAM | Cloud-Hosted Proprietary (FP8 / BF16 Tensor Core Cluster) · Zero Local VRAM Required (100% Serverless Cloud API) | Cloud-Hosted Proprietary (FP8 / BF16 Tensor Core Cluster) · Zero Local VRAM Required (100% Serverless Cloud API) |
| Safety & Frontier Classification | xAI Production Safety & Alignment Verified | OpenAI Preparedness Framework Audited & System Card Published |
| Enterprise Compliance (ZDR/HIPAA/SOC2) | SOC2 Type II · GDPR · Zero Data Retention (ZDR) & HIPAA BAA Available on Enterprise Tier | SOC2 Type II · GDPR · Zero Data Retention (ZDR) & HIPAA BAA Available on Enterprise Tier |
| Input Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Output Modalities | text | text |
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) vs GPT-4.1: Réponses Rapides (FAQ)
Which is more intelligent, Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) or GPT-4.1?
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) is more intelligent. It scores 62 compared with 48 on the composite Intelligence Index.
Which model is faster?
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) is faster, generating 135 tokens per second compared with 110 tokens per second.
Which model is cheaper to run?
GPT-4.1 is cheaper at $1.55 per 1M tokens blended, compared with $2.63 (7:2:1 cache:input:output ratio).
Which model has lower latency?
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) has lower latency, with a time to first token of 0.42s compared with 0.48s.
Which model has a larger context window?
GPT-4.1 has a larger context window, supporting 1.05M tokens compared with 1M tokens.
Verdict
Verdict & Model Selection Recommendation: Choose Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) if your priority is Fast agentic tool pipelines, real-time interactive chat, and high-throughput document extraction. Its performance in demanding tasks justifies its operational token cost. Choose GPT-4.1 if your workflow prioritizes Long-document analysis, large-codebase review and structured extraction. For large-scale batch processing or customer-facing conversational interfaces, its balance of speed and economics delivers superior ROI.
Questions fréquentes
How does Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) compare to GPT-4.1 in API token pricing and cost per token?+
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $15.00 per 1M output tokens, whereas GPT-4.1 costs $2.00 input and $8.00 output. Overall, GPT-4.1 is the more cost-effective model for high-volume API pipelines. Both models support prompt caching discounts of up to 90% for repeated prompt prefixes.
Which model has a larger context window: Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) or GPT-4.1?+
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) supports a context window of 1,000K tokens (~750k words), while GPT-4.1 supports 1,048K tokens (~786k words). Therefore, GPT-4.1 can process more textual data and document context in a single prompt.
Which AI model is better for software engineering and coding: Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) or GPT-4.1?+
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) scores 61.5% on SWE-bench Verified while GPT-4.1 scores 54.6%. For autonomous software engineering and multi-file debugging, Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) holds the verified benchmark lead.
What is the difference in reasoning capability and extended thinking between Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) and GPT-4.1?+
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) is optimized for low-latency direct generation. In contrast, GPT-4.1 focuses on standard fast inference.
How does inference speed (tokens per second) compare between Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) and GPT-4.1?+
Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) generates approximately 135 tokens per second, while GPT-4.1 delivers 110 tokens per second. In latency-sensitive production environments, Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) provides faster time-to-first-token (TTFT) and higher streaming response velocity.
Can you implement a tiered LLM routing setup combining Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) and GPT-4.1 to optimize costs?+
Yes! High-efficiency architectures route high-frequency routine classification and conversational tasks to GPT-4.1 to save operational costs, and dynamically escalate complex architectural queries or reasoning tasks to Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning). This tiered routing pattern cuts overall API bills by up to 70%.
Understand key metrics like context window, token pricing, reasoning mode, and SWE-bench scores in our comprehensive AI glossary.
Related reading
- GPT-4.1 vs GPT-4.1 mini: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonComparer
- Grok 4.20 (Non-Reasoning) vs Grok 2: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonComparer
- Mistral Saba vs GPT-4.1: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonComparer
- Aion-3.0 vs Aion-Mini: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonComparer
- Aion-3.0 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonComparer
- Aion-Mini vs Laguna XS 2.1: Benchmarks, Pricing & Speed ComparisonComparer
Les scores de benchmarks, tarifs par token et limites évoluent rapidement. Vérifiez toujours les spécifications actuelles sur la documentation officielle du fournisseur.
Sources: GetInfoUs Independent AI Benchmarks & Official API Specs