Grok 4.6 vs Gemma 4 31B IT vs Qwen3.8 Max
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 69, Gemma 4 31B IT 69, Grok 4.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
GoogleGemma 4 31B IT
69/100- ECI142.8
- Price$0.14 / $0.40
- Context262K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Gemma 4 31B IT 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability, Gemma 4 31B IT on price and Qwen3.8 Max for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGrok 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Gemma 4 31B IT 142.8
- Lowest priceGemma 4 31B ITGemma 4 31B IT $0.205 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 · Gemma 4 31B IT 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.6: Text, Images · Gemma 4 31B IT: Text, Images · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingGemma 4 31B ITPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.6 | Gemma 4 31B IT | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 69 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 83 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 37 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 69/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.6xAI | Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 (best) | 142.8 | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #19 of 148 (best) | #86 of 148 | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.0% (best) | 75.8% | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% | — | 74.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.2% | 73.3% | 99.4% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 49.3% (best) | 10.4% | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $0.14 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 | $0.40 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | $0.50 | — | $0.25 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $0.205 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Median of 30 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 500,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yes | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | grok-4.6 | gemma-4-31b-it | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 29 | 38 (best) | 25 |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Apr 2, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 1, 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Grok 4.6$32.00
- Gemma 4 31B IT$2.20
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.6, Gemma 4 31B IT or Qwen3.8 Max?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Gemma 4 31B IT 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability, Gemma 4 31B IT on price and Qwen3.8 Max for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6, Gemma 4 31B IT or Qwen3.8 Max?
Gemma 4 31B IT is cheaper at $0.14 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (median across 30 API providers). Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.205 per million tokens for Gemma 4 31B IT versus $3.00 for Grok 4.6 (15× as much) and $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (15× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148), Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Gemma 4 31B IT 142.8 (#86 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 154.5–158.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Gemma 4 31B IT 75.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%, Gemma 4 31B IT 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Gemma 4 31B IT 10.4%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6, Gemma 4 31B IT and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.6 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?
Qwen3.8 Max has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 500,000 for Grok 4.6 and 262,144 for Gemma 4 31B IT. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Gemma 4 31B IT up to 32,768, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Gemma 4 31B IT accepts text and images; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Gemma 4 31B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026; Gemma 4 31B IT came out Apr 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026.
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.
