# Grok 4.6 Ties Sol on Artificial Analysis at $2/$6 — Without Owning DeepSWE

Times of AI Desk · 2026-08-12 · Models

[https://timesof.ai/2026/08/spacexai-grok-4-6](https://timesof.ai/2026/08/spacexai-grok-4-6)

> xAI released Grok 4.6 — a post-training upgrade of Grok 4.5 aimed at long-running agents, coding, and interactive visual work — that ties GPT-5.6 Sol Max at 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, ships at $2/$6 per million tokens, and is live in Cursor, Grok Build, and the xAI API. DeepSWE and Terminal-Bench still trail Sol/Fable.

At **$2/$6**, matching Sol on the main independent composite is a direct shot at OpenAI and Anthropic list prices. Read 4.6 as a **price–agent** step that **ties Sol on AA** without owning DeepSWE or Terminal-Bench.

**xAI** released **Grok 4.6**, a longer supplemental training run on the **Grok 4.5** foundation rather than a new base model. The lab positions it for **long-running agents**, coding, and more ambitious interactive/visual projects. On xAI’s published table it **matches GPT-5.6 Sol Max at 61** on the **Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index** (Grok 4.5 High was **56**; Fable 5 Max is **62**). Pricing stays **$2 / $6 per million input/output tokens**, with a **fast variant at 2×** that price. Access: **Cursor**, **Grok Build** (2× included usage for the first week), the **xAI API**, plus **OpenRouter, Vercel, and Cloudflare**.

## What xAI announced

From the primary “Introducing Grok 4.6” post (x.ai/news/grok-4-6):

- **Training**: Longer supplemental run than 4.5; Grok 4.5 regenerated SFT trajectories across reasoning efforts and agent harnesses; RL on knowledge work, general coding, and domain environments (kernel optimization, web development, CAD).
- **Behavior**: Stronger first passes on visual/interactive apps; more self-testing before moving on in long trajectories.
- **Safety**: Wider pre-deployment suite and third-party testing; no open-weights path.

### Lab-cited evals (Grok 4.6 High vs named peers)

| Eval | Grok 4.6 High | Grok 4.5 High | GPT-5.6 Sol Max | Fable 5 Max |
|------|---------------|---------------|-----------------|-------------|
| **AA Intelligence Index** | **61** | 56 | **61** | **62** |
| GDPVal-AA v2 | **1753** | 1526 | 1728 | 1741 |
| CursorBench v3.2 | 69.9% | 66.7% | 67.2% | **70.5%** |
| DeepSWE v1.1 | 65.9% | 54% | **73%** | 70% |
| FrontierCode v1.1 (Extended) | 61.3% | 56.6% | 60.6% | **63.6%** |
| Terminal-Bench v3.0 | 26% | 15.7% | **34.6%** | 34.1% |

xAI notes competitor figures are the best of self-reported or public leaderboard scores. DeepSWE and Terminal-Bench still trail Sol/Fable; the intelligence-index **tie with Sol** is the headline independent composite.

## Independent rankings

| Source | Snapshot | Standing |
|--------|----------|----------|
| **Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index** | Lab table + contemporaneous AA/VentureBeat writeups, Aug 12 | **Grok 4.6 = 61**, tying **GPT-5.6 Sol Max**; **Fable 5 Max 62** still one point ahead; **+5** vs Grok 4.5 (56) |
| **LMArena / other live boards** | Research window Aug 17 | **Not cited as ranked** with a dated Elo in the primary; do not invent an Arena rank |

## Limits

- No dated LMArena Elo in the primary.
- DeepSWE and Terminal-Bench still trail Sol/Fable on the lab’s own table.
- Fast variant at 2× price; usage pattern not yet public.

## Sources

- [xAI: Introducing Grok 4.6 (August 12, 2026)](https://x.ai/news/grok-4-6)
- [VentureBeat: xAI debuts Grok 4.6, matching GPT-5.6 Sol on Artificial Analysis (August 12, 2026)](https://venturebeat.com/technology/spacexai-debuts-grok-4-6-overtaking-kimi-k3s-performance-and-matching-gpt-5-6-sol-for-worlds-third-best-on-artificial-analysis)
- [MarkTechPost: xAI Releases Grok 4.6 (August 12, 2026)](https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/08/12/spacexai-releases-grok-4-6/)