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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs GPT-5.4 mini

Grok 4.3 comes out ahead, 67 to 63 and 51 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 235B-A22B is 22% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

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

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  3. 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
01 — Verdict

Grok 4.3 is our pick

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63) and Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins 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 235B-A22B 139.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3 235B-A22BQwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · GPT-5.4 mini 400,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.3Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Qwen3 235B-A22BGPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%776577
Price25%414639
Inputs & features15%803570
Context window10%602444
Overall100%67/10051/10063/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2 (best)139.4148.8
ECI rank#55 of 148 (best)#103 of 148#56 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)70.7%86.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics42.8%—51.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)—88.9%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions33.2% (best)—29.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$0.70 (best)$0.75
Output$2.50 (best)$2.80$4.50
Cached input$0.20—$0.075 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.56$1.23 (best)$1.69
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens400,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens16,384 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.3qwen3-235b-a22bgpt-5.4-mini
API providers27729 (best)
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Apr 28, 2025Mar 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 2025Aug 31, 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 4.3$17.50
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.3, Qwen3 235B-A22B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63) and Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3, Qwen3 235B-A22B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.80 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 $1.23 per million tokens for Qwen3 235B-A22B versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (1.3× as much) and $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.4× 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 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 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%, GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3, Qwen3 235B-A22B and GPT-5.4 mini 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?

Grok 4.3 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5.4 mini and 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, GPT-5.4 mini up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images. Grok 4.3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.3 and GPT-5.4 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. GPT-5.4 mini came out Mar 17, 2026; Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, GPT-5.4 mini Aug 31, 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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