ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 14B vs Kimi K2.6

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) comes out ahead, 68 to 65 and 54 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 14B is 2.6× cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

    Released Mar 9, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI152.0
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 14B

    Released Apr 29, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI138.2
    • Price$0.35 / $1.40
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 14B

  3. Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2.6

    Released Apr 21, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI151.1
    • Price$0.95 / $4.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2.6
01 — Verdict

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is our pick

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Kimi K2.6 (65) and Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on context window. Qwen3 14B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 · Kimi K2.6 151.1 · Qwen3 14B 138.2
  • Lowest priceQwen3 14BQwen3 14B $0.613 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 · Kimi K2.6 $1.71 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 · Kimi K2.6 262,144 · Qwen3 14B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Kimi K2.6Grok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 14B: Text · Kimi K2.6: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3 14B and Kimi K2.6Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Qwen3 14BKimi K2.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%816379
Price25%416039
Inputs & features15%803580
Context window10%602437
Overall100%68/10054/10065/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 14B vs Kimi K2.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAIQwen3 14BAlibaba (Qwen)Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)152.0 (best)138.2151.1
ECI rank#41 of 148 (best)#107 of 148#45 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions89.3%63.8%90.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics44.9%—57.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics92.2%66.4%96.1% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues——76.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions30.2%—34.9% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$0.35 (best)$0.95
Output$2.50$1.40 (best)$4.00
Cached input$0.20—$0.16 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.56$0.613 (best)$1.71
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Moonshot AI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens8,192 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDgrok-4.20-0309-reasoningqwen3-14bkimi-k2.6
API providers11146 (best)
ReleasedMar 9, 2026Apr 29, 2025Apr 21, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 2025Jan 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.

  • Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)$17.50
  • Qwen3 14B$6.30
  • Kimi K2.6$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning), Qwen3 14B or Kimi K2.6?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Kimi K2.6 (65) and Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on context window. Qwen3 14B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning), Qwen3 14B or Kimi K2.6?

Qwen3 14B is cheaper at $0.35 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.613 per million tokens for Qwen3 14B versus $1.56 for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) (2.6× as much) and $1.71 for Kimi K2.6 (2.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 (#41 of 148), Kimi K2.6 151.1 (#45 of 148) and Qwen3 14B 138.2 (#107 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (149.3–154.4 vs 149.1–152.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Kimi K2.6 90.8%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 89.3%, Qwen3 14B 63.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K2.6 96.1%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 92.2%, Qwen3 14B 66.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Qwen3 14B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 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?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Kimi K2.6 and 131,072 for Qwen3 14B. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000, Qwen3 14B up to 8,192, Kimi K2.6 up to 262,144 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 14B accepts text; Kimi K2.6 accepts text, images and video. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 14B and Kimi K2.6 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Kimi K2.6 is the newest, released Apr 21, 2026. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) came out Mar 9, 2026; Qwen3 14B came out Apr 29, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 14B Apr 2025, Kimi K2.6 Jan 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

Related comparisons