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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3.6 Plus

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

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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), 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 · Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus $1.13 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameGrok 4.3 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsGrok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Qwen3.6 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7775
Price25%4147
Inputs & features15%8070
Context window10%6060
Overall100%67/10066/100
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 specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2 (best)147.6
ECI rank#55 of 148 (best)#59 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)88.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics42.8% (best)38.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3%93.3%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—57.9%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions33.2%44.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$0.50 (best)
Output$2.50 (best)$3.00
Cached input$0.20$0.05 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.56$1.13 (best)
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Over 256K: $2.00 / $6.00
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.3qwen3.6-plus
API providers27 (best)18
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Apr 2, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 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
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), 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 or Qwen3.6 Plus?

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). 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).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6 (#59 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.6–150.8 vs 145.4–149.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — 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%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1%, Grok 4.3 33.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3 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. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 and Qwen3.6 Plus share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536 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. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

No. Grok 4.3 and Qwen3.6 Plus 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. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Plus Apr 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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