ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-5.4 mini vs Qwen3.6 Plus vs Grok 4.3

Too close to call on our weighted score (Grok 4.3 67, Qwen3.6 Plus 66, GPT-5.4 mini 63). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    GPT-5.4 mini

    Released Mar 17, 2026

    63/100
    • ECI148.8
    • Price$0.75 / $4.50
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.4 mini

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Plus

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI147.6
    • Price$0.50 / $3.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Plus

  3. xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.3
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.3Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 · GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 · Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus $1.13 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 Plus and Grok 4.3Qwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · GPT-5.4 mini 400,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 Plus and Grok 4.3GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-5.4 miniQwen3.6 PlusGrok 4.3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777577
Price25%394741
Inputs & features15%707080
Context window10%446060
Overall100%63/10066/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

GPT-5.4 mini vs Qwen3.6 Plus vs Grok 4.3 specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-5.4 miniOpenAIQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.3xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)148.8147.6149.2 (best)
ECI rank#56 of 148#59 of 148#55 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions86.9%88.4%88.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics51.2% (best)38.3%42.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9%93.3% (best)93.3% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—57.9%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions29.4%44.1% (best)33.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.75$0.50 (best)$1.25
Output$4.50$3.00$2.50 (best)
Cached input$0.075$0.05 (best)$0.20
Blended (3:1)$1.69$1.13 (best)$1.56
Long-context rateSame rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00Over 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window400,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output128,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhighYesYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgpt-5.4-miniqwen3.6-plusgrok-4.3
API providers29 (best)1827
ReleasedMar 17, 2026Apr 2, 2026Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffAug 31, 2025Apr 2025—
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
  • Qwen3.6 Plus$11.00
  • Grok 4.3$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-5.4 mini, Qwen3.6 Plus or Grok 4.3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.4 mini, Qwen3.6 Plus or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 input / $3.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); GPT-5.4 mini costs $0.75 input / $4.50 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.13 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Plus versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (1.4× as much) and $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148), GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 (#56 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6 (#59 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.6–150.8 vs 147.1–150.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%, GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.4 mini 51.2%, Grok 4.3 42.8%, Qwen3.6 Plus 38.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, Grok 4.3 93.3%, GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1%, Grok 4.3 33.2%, GPT-5.4 mini 29.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-5.4 mini and Grok 4.3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.3 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?

Qwen3.6 Plus and Grok 4.3 have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 400,000 for GPT-5.4 mini. Maximum output per response: GPT-5.4 mini up to 128,000, Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images; Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Qwen3.6 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. GPT-5.4 mini, Qwen3.6 Plus and Grok 4.3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus came out Apr 2, 2026; GPT-5.4 mini came out Mar 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5.4 mini Aug 31, 2025, Qwen3.6 Plus Apr 2025.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

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