Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 69, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69, Grok 4.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash
69/100- ECI154.5
- Price$1.50 / $9.00
- Context1.05M
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability and Gemini 3.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGrok 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5
- Lowest priceGrok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.6 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Grok 4.6: Text, Images · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 84 | 86 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 25 | 27 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 70 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 48 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 65/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle | Grok 4.6xAI | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 154.5 | 156.6 (best) | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #33 of 148 | #19 of 148 (best) | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 92.8% | 94.0% (best) | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 62.8% | 66.0% | 74.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 95.6% | 99.2% | 99.4% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 79.3% | — | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 66.2% (best) | 49.3% | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.50 (best) | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $9.00 | $6.00 (best) | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.15 (best) | $0.50 | $0.25 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.38 | $3.00 (best) | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official xAI API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 500,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 500,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-3.5-flash | grok-4.6 | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 32 (best) | 29 | 25 |
| Released | May 19, 2026 | Aug 12, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Feb 1, 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash$33.00
- Grok 4.6$32.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability and Gemini 3.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Grok 4.6 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 input / $9.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Grok 4.6 versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (1× as much) and $3.38 for Gemini 3.5 Flash (1.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148), Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 (#33 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 154.5–158.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 62.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.5 Flash 66.2%, Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.6 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max and 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536, Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026; Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 2025, Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
