Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 Plus vs Kimi K2.6
Too close to call on our weighted score (Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68, Qwen3.6 Plus 66, Kimi K2.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.
xAIGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)
68/100- ECI152.0
- Price$1.25 / $2.50
- Context1M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Plus
66/100- ECI147.6
- Price$0.50 / $3.00
- Context1M
Moonshot AIKimi K2.6
65/100- ECI151.1
- Price$0.95 / $4.00
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100, Kimi K2.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus 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 · Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus $1.13 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 · Kimi K2.6 $1.71 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGrok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Qwen3.6 PlusGrok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · Kimi K2.6 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsGrok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Kimi K2.6: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingKimi K2.6Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) | Qwen3.6 Plus | Kimi K2.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 81 | 75 | 79 |
| Price | 25% | 41 | 47 | 39 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 60 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 68/100 | 66/100 | 65/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAI | Qwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 152.0 (best) | 147.6 | 151.1 |
| ECI rank | #41 of 148 (best) | #59 of 148 | #45 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 89.3% | 88.4% | 90.8% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 44.9% | 38.3% | 57.2% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 92.2% | 93.3% | 96.1% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 57.9% | 76.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 30.2% | 44.1% (best) | 34.9% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.25 | $0.50 (best) | $0.95 |
| Output | $2.50 (best) | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Cached input | $0.20 | $0.05 (best) | $0.16 |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.56 | $1.13 (best) | $1.71 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $2.50 / $5.00 | Over 256K: $2.00 / $6.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Official Alibaba API | Official Moonshot AI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 30,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | grok-4.20-0309-reasoning | qwen3.6-plus | kimi-k2.6 |
| API providers | 11 | 18 | 46 (best) |
| Released | Mar 9, 2026 | Apr 2, 2026 | Apr 21, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 2025 | Jan 2025 |
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
- Qwen3.6 Plus$11.00
- Kimi K2.6$17.50
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning), Qwen3.6 Plus or Kimi K2.6?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100, Kimi K2.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 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, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning), Qwen3.6 Plus or Kimi K2.6?
Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 input / $3.00 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 $1.13 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Plus versus $1.56 for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) (1.4× as much) and $1.71 for Kimi K2.6 (1.5× 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 Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6 (#59 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%, Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Kimi K2.6 57.2%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 44.9%, Qwen3.6 Plus 38.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K2.6 96.1%, Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 92.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1%, Kimi K2.6 34.9%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 30.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 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) and Qwen3.6 Plus have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 262,144 for Kimi K2.6. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000, Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536, 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; Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video; Kimi K2.6 accepts text, images and video. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Kimi K2.6 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Qwen3.6 Plus is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Kimi K2.6 is the newest, released Apr 21, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus came out Apr 2, 2026; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) came out Mar 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Plus 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.
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