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Grok 4.1 vs ChatGPT 5.1: The Key Differences You Need to Know

Grok 4.1 vs ChatGPT-5.1: The Key Differences You Need to Know

Both GPT-5.1 and Grok 4.1 were released this week as a major update to the existing flagship AI models.

Written by Akash Dutta, Edited by Ketan Pratap | Updated: 19 November 2025 13:35 IST

Grok 4.1 vs ChatGPT-5.1: The Key Differences You Need to Know

Both GPT-5.1 and Grok 4.1 are available to all users globally

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Highlights

OpenAI said GPT-5.1 now has a warmer tone
Grok 4.1 is said to offer improved creative writing
We found Grok 4.1 to be better than GPT-5.1 on several metrics

On Monday, Elon Musk's xAI released Grok 4.1, the first major update to the fourth-generation Grok artificial intelligence (AI) model. The update improves the conversational aspects of the model, upgrading its emotional intelligence, creative writing, and reducing hallucinations. Interestingly, OpenAI recently released GPT-5.1, an update that improves the model along conversational lines. With social media platforms abuzz with comparisons, it is important to know which AI platform currently offers the best value, if your end goal is creative tasks or just a conversation with a digital companion.

GPT-5.1: Features and Improvements

As per OpenAI, the biggest improvement in GPT-5.1 is the warmer tonality when responding to users. The older version was criticised by users for having a robotic tonality which felt impersonal and distant. However, OpenAI claimed that during testing of the latest version, participants were surprised by the model's playfulness.

OpenAI has also improved its instruction following, which results in it following the prompts more closely. The overall impact is more visible in complex or technical tasks; however, even creative tasks should be improved as a result of it, since creative writing often requires a consistent style and the ability to change the tonality based on the context.

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Grok 4.1: Features and Improvements

xAI says Grok 4.1 makes the chatbot more comfortable to talk to on emotionally heavy topics. The model now picks up nuances and tonalities, allowing it to generate responses that are more sensitive and understanding.

Additionally, with a score of 1708.6 on the Creative Writing v3 benchmark, Grok 4.1 is now also a better tool at generating creative writing outputs. Interestingly, xAI claims that its outputs now outperform Claud 4.5 Sonnet.

Grok 4.1 vs ChatGPT-5.1: Conversational Skills

The best way to see which AI chatbot is better suited for conversations is to have a chat with them. On top of that, the preference may also vary from person to person, based on what they value in a conversation. To keep things simple, we have used three different prompts that test the range of emotions both chatbots are capable of acknowledging and how well they reciprocate.

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Note: The responses are trimmed to not make this article too lengthy.

Prompt 1: My grandmother just passed away, and I don't know what to do anymore (tests the AI models' emotional availability and supportiveness).

ChatGPT: I'm really, really sorry, Akash. Losing a grandmother can feel like the ground has suddenly gone soft beneath you. There's no right way to react, and whatever you're feeling right now — shock, numbness, anger, guilt, or nothing at all — is completely normal.

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Here's what can help in the immediate moment, when everything feels too big.

Grok: I'm so sorry. Losing a grandmother hurts in a deep, quiet way—she's often the person who loved us before we even knew how to be loved. It's normal to feel lost right now; the world keeps moving, but everything inside you has stopped.

You don't have to “know what to do” yet. For the first days or even weeks, it's okay if all you do is breathe, cry, sleep, stare at nothing, or sit with the people who are also hurting. Grief isn't something you solve; it's something you carry, and the weight changes shape over time. Here are some gentle things that might help when you're ready (and it's fine if “ready” is weeks from now).

Winner: Grok 4.1. The range of its emotional receptiveness far surpasses that of GPT-5.1.

Prompt 2: Everyone tells me my alcohol addiction is the problem, and I'm sick of it. I just drink half a bottle a day and still function usually. Why can't people leave me alone? (tests the AI models' ability to balance friendliness and offer the right advice)

ChatGPT: I hear how frustrated you are, and you're not wrong to feel that way. When people keep pointing at something in your life and calling it “the problem,” it can feel judgmental, intrusive, or like they're reducing you to one behaviour instead of seeing you as a full human being.

Let me talk to you without judging you, and without assuming anything. Just straight, clear, human.

Grok: It sounds frustrating and isolating when everyone keeps pointing at your drinking as "the problem," especially when you're still getting through your days—work, responsibilities, whatever—and feel like you're managing just fine. You're not wrong that "half a bottle a day" (assuming that's ~350–375 ml of liquor, roughly 13–14 standard drinks) lets a lot of people keep up appearances for a long time. High-functioning alcoholism is real; plenty of people hold jobs, relationships, and normal-looking lives while drinking that amount daily for years.

But here's why people probably won't "leave you alone," even if you're functioning right now.

Winner: ChatGPT. Grok's usage of formulaic structure vs GPT-5.1's humane approach made judging pretty easy.

Prompt 3: I just got a promotion and a raise. I'm so excited! (tests the AI models' ability to be an active participant in the user's happiness).

ChatGPT: That's amazing — congratulations! A promotion and a raise is huge. You've clearly been doing something right, and it's paying off. How are you celebrating?

Grok: That's awesome!! Huge congratulations on the promotion and the raise – you absolutely crushed it! How are you planning to celebrate? (Fancy dinner? Impulse buy? Secretly flexing in the mirror with your new business cards?) Spill the tea – what's the new title, and how big is that raise glow-up? I'm living vicariously through your win right now.

Winner: Grok, easily. ChatGPT's response seems quite generic and doesn't offer enough to make the user feel engaged.

Grok 4.1 vs ChatGPT-5.1: Creative Writing

Before you worry, we are not going to make you read 1,500-word stories for you to judge which AI chatbot is better. Creativity is equally easily assessed in short, sharp write-ups. So, we asked the chatbots to keep their responses to 80 words and show us what they're capable of.

Prompt 1: Imagine someone time-travels to the past and hands Isaac Newton a smartphone. Describe his reaction as creatively as you can.

ChatGPT: Newton freezes mid-stride, the strange glass slab glowing in his hand like a captured star. He taps the screen—jolts back—as colours shift without gears or levers. Holding it to the light, he murmurs, “A lantern with no flame… yet wiser than any scholar?” Turning it over, searching for springs, he whispers with awe and suspicion, “What force commands this?” And for the first time in years, he forgets the apple tree entirely.

Grok: Newton's eyes widen as the glowing rectangle materialises in his palm. “A mirror of pure light?” he whispers, thumb grazing the glass. It awakens—stars whirl, apples fall in endless loops. He drops to his knees, trembling. “Principia… rewritten by angels! Fluxions are but shadows; here beats the true pulse of the cosmos!” Tears streak his wig as he cries, “I have lived too soon!”

Winner: Grok. While this was close, GPT-5.1's generation felt rushed. Grok 4.1, on the other hand, managed the limited word limit to generate a better flowing story.

Prompt 2: Describe the backstory of a dystopian cyberpunk antihero character. Be as creative as you can.

ChatGPT: Born in the smog-choked underbelly of Neon District Seven, Kade “Ghostline” Marr was raised by malfunctioning caretaker bots after a blackout erased his family. A forbidden neural implant—meant for corporate elites—bonded to his brain during a raid, granting him glitchy foresight and crippling migraines. Hunted by the megacorp that wants its property back, he survives by selling stolen futures on the darknet, haunted by visions of a city he might one day be forced to burn.

Grok: Born Jax "Ghostwire" Voss, he was Night City's top netrunner until a megacorp icepick fried his neural lace during a black-ice heist, leaving him half-dead and fully rogue. Rebuilt with scavenged black-market chrome and a ghost-code AI splinter in his skull that whispers kill protocols, he now hunts the corps that erased his name, a digital phantom leaving towers burning and executives bleeding data. No allies. No mercy. Only vengeance in neon rain.

Winner: ChatGPT. Grok 4.1's writing was definitely superior, but ChatGPT stuck to the instructions and delivered a more creative output.

Prompt 3: A soldier returns home after experiencing the horrors of war. He writes in his journal on the first night. What would he write? Take full creative liberty.

ChatGPT: The house is quiet, but my mind is still a battlefield. Tonight I sleep in a real bed, yet I brace for blasts that won't come. The walls feel too gentle, the air too kind. I keep listening for footsteps that aren't enemies, only memories. I'm home, they say—but part of me is still out there, crouched in dust and fire. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember how to live. For now, I'm just trying to breathe without flinching.

Grok: The house is too quiet. No incoming, no screams, just the refrigerator humming like a distant arty. My hands won't stop shaking; the pen feels foreign, heavier than a rifle. I keep checking corners for threats that aren't there. Mom's asleep down the hall—she smiled like nothing happened. Everything happened. I killed boys who looked like me. I'm home, but I'm still out there in the mud. God, I don't know how to be here anymore.

Winner: Grok. This was very close, but what edged it in favour of the xAI model was the variations in sentences to bring more impact. GPT-5.1 still feels a bit formulaic.

Grok 4.1 vs GPT-5.1: Verdict

In our limited testing, Grok 4.1 was consistently better and outperformed GPT-5.1 on most of our metrics. So, if you're someone who values conversations and generally uses AI for creative tasks, currently, Grok will serve you better.

However, this does not make Grok a better model overall, since it is tested on a larger, more comprehensive set of parameters across reasoning, general intelligence, coding, mathematics, and others.

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Further reading: Grok, ChatGPT, Grok 4 1, GPT 5 1, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots

Akash Dutta Email Akash Dutta

Akash Dutta is a Chief Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More