Grok 4.5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Qwen3.8 Max 0902
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3.5 Flash 69, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67, Grok 4.5 64). The right pick depends on what you value most.
xAIGrok 4.5
64/100- ECI154.0
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash
69/100- ECI154.5
- Price$1.50 / $9.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max 0902
67/100- ECI155.2
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67/100, Grok 4.5 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max 0902 for raw capability, Grok 4.5 on price and Gemini 3.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.8 Max 0902Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 0902 155.2 · Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 · Grok 4.5 154.0
- Lowest priceGrok 4.5 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902Grok 4.5 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max 0902 $3.00 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max 0902 1,000,000 · Grok 4.5 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 FlashGrok 4.5: Text, Images · Gemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.8 Max 0902: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Qwen3.8 Max 0902 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 83 | 84 | 85 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 25 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 69/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.5xAI | Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle | Qwen3.8 Max 0902Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 154.0 | 154.5 | 155.2 (best) |
| ECI rank | #36 of 148 | #33 of 148 | #28 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 93.4% (best) | 92.8% | 92.3% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 57.2% | 62.8% | 65.6% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 97.8% | 95.6% | 100% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 79.3% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 48.3% | 66.2% (best) | 47.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $1.50 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $9.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.30 | $0.15 (best) | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $3.38 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Official Google API | Median of 6 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 500,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | grok-4.5 | gemini-3.5-flash | — |
| API providers | 24 | 32 (best) | 6 |
| Released | Jul 8, 2026 | May 19, 2026 | Sep 2, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Grok 4.5$32.00
- Gemini 3.5 Flash$33.00
- Qwen3.8 Max 0902$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Qwen3.8 Max 0902?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67/100, Grok 4.5 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max 0902 for raw capability, Grok 4.5 on price and Gemini 3.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Qwen3.8 Max 0902?
Grok 4.5 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Qwen3.8 Max 0902 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers); Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 input / $9.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Grok 4.5 versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902 (1× as much) and $3.38 for Gemini 3.5 Flash (1.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.8 Max 0902 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 0902 155.2 (#28 of 148), Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 (#33 of 148) and Grok 4.5 154.0 (#36 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (153.2–157.3 vs 152.5–156.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.5 93.4%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 92.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 0902 65.6%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 62.8%, Grok 4.5 57.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 0902 100%, Grok 4.5 97.8%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.5 Flash 66.2%, Grok 4.5 48.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 47.3%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 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?
Gemini 3.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902 and 500,000 for Grok 4.5. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.5 up to 500,000, Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Grok 4.5 accepts text and images; Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.8 Max 0902 accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Grok 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is the newest, released Sep 2, 2026. Grok 4.5 came out Jul 8, 2026; Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 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.
