Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking

    Comparison

    As of August 25, 2026, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning is 96% cheaper per million tokens than Grok-4.1 Thinking. Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning is $0.20 / $0.50 per million input/output tokens versus Grok-4.1 Thinking at $3.00 / $15.00. Source: https://docs.x.ai/docs/models

    Source: xAI API pricing (https://docs.x.ai/docs/models)

    Better value

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning

    xAI

    $0.70blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.20

    Output

    $0.50

    2M ctx|Proprietary
    96%
    cheaper

    Grok-4.1 Thinking

    xAI

    $18.00blended / 1M

    Input

    $3.00

    Output

    $15.00

    256K ctx|Proprietary
    Save $17.30 per million tokens by choosing Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning over Grok-4.1 Thinking.

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Shared benchmarks

    Each bar is share of the current leader on that eval. Click a row to open the board.

    Grok-4.1 Fast ReasoningGrok-4.1 Thinking

    Score vs price

    Arena Code Elo. Left is cheaper. Up is a higher score. The line is the best score you can buy at each price.

    Best score at each priceGrok-4.1 Fast ReasoningGrok-4.1 Thinking
    Metric
    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning
    Grok-4.1 Thinking
    Provider
    Provider
    xAI
    xAI
    License
    Proprietary
    Proprietary
    Release Date
    2025-11-17
    2025-11-17
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price-93%
    $0.20
    $3.00
    Output Price-97%
    $0.50
    $15.00
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $0.70
    $18.00
    Model Details
    Context Window
    2M
    256K
    Max Output Tokens
    30K
    8K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    N/A
    N/A
    Throughput
    90 tok/s
    80 tok/s
    Benchmarks
    84.3%
    91.9%
    69.6%
    72.7%
    66.0%
    39%
    79.3%
    34%
    3.1%
    74.2%
    51%
    28.1%
    92.1%
    78.7%
    89.5%
    84.2%
    31.3%
    73.1%
    61%
    84%
    Benchmark Wins
    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning 1|0 Grok-4.1 Thinking

    Verdict

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking: the bottom line

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning offers both lower pricing and stronger benchmark performance across the board, making it the clear value leader in this comparison.

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning or Grok-4.1 Thinking?

    As of August 25, 2026, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning is 96% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens ($0.70 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Grok-4.1 Thinking costs $3.00 / $15.00 per million tokens ($18.00 blended). Sources: https://docs.x.ai/docs/models and https://docs.x.ai/docs/models. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking cost per million tokens?

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning xAI API pricing is $0.20 input and $0.50 output per million tokens via xAI. Grok-4.1 Thinking xAI API pricing is $3.00 input and $15.00 output per million tokens via xAI. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning or Grok-4.1 Thinking?

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning has a published SWE-bench Verified score of 41.4%. Grok-4.1 Thinking does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking?

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning supports a 2M token context window, while Grok-4.1 Thinking supports 256K tokens. Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning or Grok-4.1 Thinking?

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks versus Grok-4.1 Thinking's 0 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning or Grok-4.1 Thinking better for production use?

    Both Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning and Grok-4.1 Thinking are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning and Grok-4.1 Thinking in my app?

    Yes. Call Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning through xAI and Grok-4.1 Thinking through xAI with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published xAI API pricing and xAI API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://docs.x.ai/docs/models and https://docs.x.ai/docs/models. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning and Grok-4.1 Thinking?

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning supports up to 30K output tokens per request, while Grok-4.1 Thinking supports up to 8K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning or Grok-4.1 Thinking?

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning runs at approximately 90 tokens/second while Grok-4.1 Thinking runs at 80 tokens/second. Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning is faster in raw throughput. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning or Grok-4.1 Thinking from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning vs Grok-4.1 Thinking pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Grok-4.1 Fast Reasoning costs $0.20/M input and $0.50/M output. Grok-4.1 Thinking costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

    The index

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