ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs GPT-5.4 mini

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, Grok 4.3 67, GPT-5.4 mini 63). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

  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

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Grok 4.3 67/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 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 35B-A3B 143.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · 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 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3BGrok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 35B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Qwen3.6 35B-A3BGPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777077
Price25%416239
Inputs & features15%809070
Context window10%603744
Overall100%67/10068/10063/100
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 Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIQwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2 (best)143.9148.8
ECI rank#55 of 148 (best)#83 of 148#56 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)84.9%86.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics42.8%20.4%51.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)86.7%88.9%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions33.2% (best)—29.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$0.248 (best)$0.75
Output$2.50$1.49 (best)$4.50
Cached input$0.20—$0.075 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.56$0.557 (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)262,144 tokens400,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens65,536 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.3qwen3.6-35b-a3bgpt-5.4-mini
API providers2734 (best)29
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Apr 17, 2026Mar 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——Aug 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
  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.3, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or GPT-5.4 mini?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Grok 4.3 67/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.248 input / $1.49 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 $0.557 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (2.8× as much) and $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (3× 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 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 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%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.4 mini 51.2%, Grok 4.3 42.8%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 20.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 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 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536, 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; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video; GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 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. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B came out Apr 17, 2026; GPT-5.4 mini came out Mar 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: 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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