ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3.8 27B vs GPT-5.4 mini

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 27B 67, 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)

    Qwen3.8 27B

    Released Aug 14, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.4
    • Price$0.40 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 27B

  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 (Qwen3.8 27B 67/100, Grok 4.3 67/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 27B for raw capability and Grok 4.3 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 · Grok 4.3 149.2 · GPT-5.4 mini 148.8
  • Lowest priceQwen3.8 27BQwen3.8 27B $0.925 · 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 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.3 and Qwen3.8 27BGrok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Qwen3.8 27BGPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777777
Price25%415139
Inputs & features15%808070
Context window10%603744
Overall100%67/10067/10063/100
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 Qwen3.8 27B vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2149.4 (best)148.8
ECI rank#55 of 148#53 of 148 (best)#56 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)—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$0.40 (best)$0.75
Output$2.50 (best)$2.50 (best)$4.50
Cached input$0.20—$0.075 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.56$0.925 (best)$1.69
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIMedian of 39 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens400,000 tokens
Max output30,000 tokens32,768 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDgrok-4.3—gpt-5.4-mini
API providers2741 (best)29
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Aug 14, 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
  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.3, Qwen3.8 27B or GPT-5.4 mini?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 27B 67/100, Grok 4.3 67/100, GPT-5.4 mini 63/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 27B for raw capability and Grok 4.3 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3, Qwen3.8 27B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers). 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 $0.925 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 27B versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (1.7× as much) and $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148), Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148) and GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 (#56 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–151.6 vs 147.6–150.8), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3, Qwen3.8 27B and GPT-5.4 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 27B 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 Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, 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; Qwen3.8 27B 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?

Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.3 and GPT-5.4 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Grok 4.3 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

Related comparisons