Towards AITowards AIToneBench

Grok 4.7

xAI · proprietary · writing benchmark

#27 of 167 Elo 2186 Overall 87.9 Proprietary
Rank
#27 of 167
Writing Elo
2186 ±46
Overall
87.9 / 100
Cost / task
$0.267 per script
Family
xAI 2nd of 13
Type
Closed 24th of 114
Consistency
± 2.7 typical spread
Avg tokens
58.2k in+out
Latency
463s per call
Family check:Grok 4.7 (high) is xAI's best writer here, +-0.1 overall vs this config for $0.044 more per script.

The short version

Grok 4.7 sits at #27 of 167 on ToneBench, in the middle of the pack, with a writing Elo of 2186 and an overall score of 87.9 out of 100. We measured it by having it write all 10 of our real YouTube scripts, five times each, then scoring every draft blind against our own finished versions. Here is how it shook out.

Within xAI it ranks 2nd of 13. Grok 4.7 (high) is the family's top writer here, about 0 Elo ahead, so this config trades some quality for whatever it saves you in cost or speed.

Among proprietary models, it comes in 24th of 114. That ranking is against the stronger half of the board: closed models still set the pace on voice fidelity here.

What it does best is Tone & Voice: it ranks 3rd on that dimension at 90.1, well above the board average. Its softer spot is Length Discipline (71.4, 92nd), which is the thing to watch if that metric matters most for your use.

It was uneven across the 10 scripts. Its best run was the news-analysis / skeptical explainer (89.7) and its weakest was the engineering process walkthrough / presentation adaptation (82.9), a spread of about 7 points. Worth knowing if your writing skews toward one of those formats.

On cost, it runs about $0.267/task. GLM-5.3 Flash scores higher for less money, at $0.007/task, so on pure value this config is not the frontier.

If you're tuning reasoning effort, we also tested Grok 4.7 at other settings. The strongest of those on the board is Grok 4.7 (high) (Elo 2186), so it is worth checking whether more or less thinking moves the needle before you lock in this one.

Skill profile

The shape is the story: the further a corner reaches, the stronger that dimension. Biggest edge over the board: YouTube Structure (+12.2); smallest edge: Length Discipline (+0.6).

50Tone?Craft?Substance?Flow?YouTube?Hook?Length?Anti-Slop?Cues?
Grok 4.7Board averageBoard best per metricMax possible (100)

Per-metric scores

Nine writing dimensions, each scored 0–100 and blended by the editorial weight shown. Rank is against all 167 current-ranked models. The thick bar is this model; the thin lines above and below are the current field's best model (darker) and average (lighter) on the same scale. The small ± number is its run-to-run variation.

Tone & Voice ?19% weight · +11.5 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 91.090.1± 0.8 · 3rdboard avg · 78.6
Writing Craft ?13% weight · +8.4 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 91.589.0± 1.2 · 26thboard avg · 80.5
Substance & Value ?15% weight · +9.7 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh) · 90.789.0± 1.2 · 7thboard avg · 79.4
Flow & Emotion ?14% weight · +11.2 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 90.988.2± 1.2 · 16thboard avg · 77.0
YouTube Structure ?12% weight · +12.2 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 91.789.0± 1.6 · 14thboard avg · 76.7
Hook ?10% weight · +7.6 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 91.289.2± 1.6 · 15thboard avg · 81.6
Length Discipline ?8% weight · +0.6 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 97.671.4± 17.2 · 92ndboard avg · 70.8
Anti-Slop ?5% weight · +9.1 vs avg
best · Claude Opus 5.5 (max effort) · 94.993.2± 1.3 · 13thboard avg · 84.2
Visual Cues ?4% weight · +11.5 vs avg
best · GPT-5.6 Sol (ultra) · 90.188.5± 2.7 · 12thboard avg · 77.0

Per-article scores

The same 10 real scripts every current-ranked model writes, scored individually. Different formats stress different skills.

Article 1
opinion / warning explainer
88.1
out of 100
Article 2
news-analysis / skeptical explainer
89.7
out of 100
Article 3
personal roadmap / opinion
89.3
out of 100
Article 4
short explainer
87.5
out of 100
Article 5
news-analysis / opinion explainer
88.2
out of 100
Article 6
founder announcement / personal origin story
89.5
out of 100
Article 7
personal technical walkthrough / agentic workflow case study
86.5
out of 100
Article 8
product release announcement / personal observation
89.2
out of 100
Article 9
career guide / hiring analysis
88.0
out of 100
Article 10
engineering process walkthrough / presentation adaptation
82.9
out of 100

Consistency: run-to-run variability

Every cell on this page is the mean of 5 independent runs per script; the ± numbers are the run-to-run standard deviation. Overall, Grok 4.7 varies by ± 2.7 points between runs versus a board median of ± 2.7, so it is about as repeatable as the typical model on the board.

Its most volatile dimension is Length Discipline (± 17.2 vs a board median of ± 8.6): two runs of the same brief can land visibly different length discipline scores. Its steadiest is Tone & Voice (± 0.8 vs ± 1.7 board median), which you can rely on run after run.

MetricThis modelBoard medianVerdict
Tone & Voice ?90.1 ± 0.8± 1.7steadier than most
Writing Craft ?89.0 ± 1.2± 1.5typical
Substance & Value ?89.0 ± 1.2± 2.0steadier than most
Flow & Emotion ?88.2 ± 1.2± 1.8typical
YouTube Structure ?89.0 ± 1.6± 2.9steadier than most
Hook ?89.2 ± 1.6± 2.0typical
Length Discipline ?71.4 ± 17.2± 8.6swingier than most
Anti-Slop ?93.2 ± 1.3± 2.1typical
Visual Cues ?88.5 ± 2.7± 3.2typical

Measured, not modeled

Numbers we log on every run and rarely talk about. None of these affect the writing scores; cost and latency are informational.

Latency per script
463sslower than the board median of 70s
Prompt tokens in
20.5kstyle guide + brief + research packet
Tokens out
37.7kwell above the board median (thinks a lot)
Cost per script
$0.267 ± 0.102measured from actual billed tokens
List price used
$2 / $6 per M tokinput / output

What each judge scored it

The published overall of 87.9 is the consensus of three family-disjoint judges scoring the same 50 stored drafts blind with the identical rubric. The highest and lowest judge differ by 5.5 points on its overall. A typical amount of judge disagreement for this board. How the panel works: methodology.

Claude Opus 5
Anthropic
85.5
GPT-5.6 Sol (medium)
OpenAI
91.0
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek
87.1

How we ran Grok 4.7

Frequently asked questions

How good is Grok 4.7 at writing?

On ToneBench it ranks #27 of 167 with a writing Elo of 2186 and an overall score of 87.9/100. That score comes from writing our 10 real YouTube scripts five times each and scoring every draft blind against our own finished versions across nine writing dimensions.

Is Grok 4.7 the best xAI model for writing?

Not quite. Within xAI it ranks 2nd of 13; Grok 4.7 (high) is the family's best writer here.

Is Grok 4.7 good value for the money?

It costs about $0.267/task. GLM-5.3 Flash scores higher for less, so it is not the value pick.

What are Grok 4.7's strengths and weaknesses?

Its strongest dimension is Tone & Voice (3rd on the board, 90.1). Its weakest is Length Discipline (92nd on the board, 71.4). The full nine-metric breakdown is on this page.

Does Grok 4.7 write some formats better than others?

Yes. Its best of our 10 scripts was the news-analysis / skeptical explainer (89.7) and its weakest was the engineering process walkthrough / presentation adaptation (82.9).

How consistent is Grok 4.7 between runs?

We run every script 5 times. Grok 4.7's overall score varies by about ±2.7 points between runs, versus a board median of ±2.7. That is typical consistency for this board. The full per-metric variability table is on this page.

How was Grok 4.7 evaluated?

Via xAI API using the exact model/route id grok-4.7, run on 2026-09-25. 5 runs per script, provider-default sampling, no fine-tuning; every draft scored blind with a fixed rubric by a three-family judge panel. Full details in the 'How we ran it' section and the methodology.

Is Grok 4.7 open source?

No, it is a proprietary (closed-weights) model. Among proprietary models it ranks 24th of 114 for writing.

← Back to the full ToneBench leaderboard