We made Grok 4.5, GPT-5.5, and Claude build the same apps

tryai.dev

July 8, 2026

6 min read

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

56/100

Summary

Grok 4.5 has launched, described as xAI's smartest model yet and trained alongside Cursor for coding and agentic tasks. A build-off was conducted where Grok 4.5, GPT-5.5, Claude Opus 4.8, and Fable 5 created the same interactive apps, with results measured for latency and cost.

Key Takeaways

Grok 4.5 was launched as xAI's smartest model, specifically trained for coding and agentic tasks.
In a build-off, Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Fable 5 successfully created a 3D Rubik's Cube app on the first attempt, while Grok 4.5 required a retry.
GPT-5.5 produced the most visually appealing particle gravity sandbox, winning based on aesthetic appeal.
All models successfully created a playable Breakout game on the first try, resulting in a tie for that task.

Read original article

View story →

Coverage & discussions

Hacker News · tryai.dev

We made Grok 4.5, GPT-5.5, and Claude build the same apps ↗

Community discussions

Hacker News discussion ↗

Historical count: 5 · 5 saved in sample · Historical sample

Analysis ready

Community Sentiment

Mixed

Positives

Impressive, especially the number of models used for the comparison — it really showcases the landscape of AI capabilities.
This arena of 52 apps across 21 models is a goldmine for anyone interested in real-world AI performance metrics.

Concerns

Comparisons are completely subjective and the problem space is too simplistic for today's AI — it's like a kid trying to do science.
The benchmarks seem cherry-picked, ignoring the nuances of what makes a model succeed or fail — not a reliable evaluation.
I worry that newer models will be heavily restricted, which could mess up actual benchmarks and lead to misleading results.