Elon Musk: Grok 4.8 ‘Not As Good’ As Claude Opus 5.5

Elon Musk has made a strikingly honest admission, saying that his own Grok 4.8 AI model is “not as good” as Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5.

X’s Grok is a popular alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Musk and company have tried to position Grok as a less politically correct, more brutally honest chatbot. In addition, Grok has access to all of X, meaning it is outstanding at having the pulse of social discourse.

Despite its strengths, and the strides it has made in recent versions, Musk says there’s no comparison between Opus 5.5 and Grok.

Not as good. Opus 5.5 is a masterpiece.

But Grok 5 should exceed Opus 5.5 and maybe that happens in 2 or 3 months, with continued acceleration thereafter.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) | November 10, 2026

While it’s entirely possible Grok 5 will surpass Opus 5.5, it’s also a safe bet that Anthropic will have released an improved version of their model in two or three months’ time.