ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3.6 Plus vs GPT-5.4 mini

Too close to call on our weighted score (Grok 4.3 67, Qwen3.6 Plus 66, 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 Plus

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI147.6
    • Price$0.50 / $3.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Plus

  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 a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus 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 Plus 147.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus $1.13 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.3 and Qwen3.6 PlusGrok 4.3 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · GPT-5.4 mini 400,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.3 and Qwen3.6 PlusGrok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Qwen3.6 PlusGPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777577
Price25%414739
Inputs & features15%807070
Context window10%606044
Overall100%67/10066/10063/100
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 Plus vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2 (best)147.6148.8
ECI rank#55 of 148 (best)#59 of 148#56 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)88.4%86.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics42.8%38.3%51.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)93.3% (best)88.9%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—57.9%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions33.2%44.1% (best)29.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$0.50 (best)$0.75
Output$2.50 (best)$3.00$4.50
Cached input$0.20$0.05 (best)$0.075
Blended (3:1)$1.56$1.13 (best)$1.69
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Over 256K: $2.00 / $6.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens (best)400,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens65,536 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.3qwen3.6-plusgpt-5.4-mini
API providers271829 (best)
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Apr 2, 2026Mar 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
  • Qwen3.6 Plus$11.00
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3, Qwen3.6 Plus or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 input / $3.00 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 $1.13 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Plus versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (1.4× as much) and $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.5× 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 Plus 147.6 (#59 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%, Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%, GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.4 mini 51.2%, Grok 4.3 42.8%, Qwen3.6 Plus 38.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1%, Grok 4.3 33.2%, GPT-5.4 mini 29.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3 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 and Qwen3.6 Plus have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 400,000 for GPT-5.4 mini. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Qwen3.6 Plus 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 Plus accepts text, images and video; GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images. Grok 4.3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Grok 4.3, Qwen3.6 Plus and GPT-5.4 mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus came out Apr 2, 2026; GPT-5.4 mini came out Mar 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Plus 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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