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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 Max

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 69, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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)

    Qwen3.8 Max

    Released Aug 3, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameGrok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8186
Price25%4127
Inputs & features15%8090
Context window10%6060
Overall100%68/10069/100
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 Qwen3.8 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAIQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)152.0156.6 (best)
ECI rank#41 of 148#20 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions89.3%92.7% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics44.9%74.7% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics92.2%99.4% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions30.2%45.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25 (best)$2.00
Output$2.50 (best)$6.00
Cached input$0.20 (best)$0.25
Blended (3:1)$1.56 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · xhigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.20-0309-reasoningqwen3.8-max
API providers1125 (best)
ReleasedMar 9, 2026Aug 3, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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
  • Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) or Qwen3.8 Max?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) or Qwen3.8 Max?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.56 per million tokens for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 (#41 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 149.3–154.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 89.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 44.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 92.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 30.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Qwen3.8 Max share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) came out Mar 9, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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