Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max 0902 vs Claude Sonnet 5
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67, Claude Sonnet 5 66, Grok 4.6 64). The right pick depends on what you value most.
xAIGrok 4.6
64/100- ECI156.9
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max 0902
67/100- ECI156.2
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5
66/100- ECI157.0
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67/100, Claude Sonnet 5 66/100, Grok 4.6 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5 for raw capability and Grok 4.6 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 157.0 · Grok 4.6 156.9 · Qwen3.8 Max 0902 156.2
- Lowest priceGrok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max 0902 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.8 Max 0902 and Claude Sonnet 5Qwen3.8 Max 0902 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 5 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 Max 0902Grok 4.6: Text, Images · Qwen3.8 Max 0902: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Claude Sonnet 5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3.8 Max 0902 | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 85 | 84 | 85 |
| Price | 25% | 26 | 26 | 20 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 80 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 67/100 | 66/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.6xAI | Qwen3.8 Max 0902Alibaba (Qwen) | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.9 | 156.2 | 157.0 (best) |
| ECI rank | #27 of 165 | #32 of 165 | #26 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.0% (best) | 92.3% | 90.5% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% (best) | 65.6% | 65.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.2% | 100% (best) | 94.7% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 49.3% (best) | 47.3% | 33.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $6.00 (best) | $10.00 |
| Cached input | $0.50 | — | $0.20 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $3.00 (best) | $4.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Median of 9 providers | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 500,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | grok-4.6 | — | claude-sonnet-5 |
| API providers | 33 | 9 | 44 (best) |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Sep 2, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 1, 2026 | — | Jan 31, 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
- Qwen3.8 Max 0902$32.00
- Claude Sonnet 5$40.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.6, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 or Claude Sonnet 5?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67/100, Claude Sonnet 5 66/100, Grok 4.6 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5 for raw capability and Grok 4.6 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 or Claude Sonnet 5?
Grok 4.6 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 9 API providers); Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Grok 4.6 versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902 (1× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5 (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 157.0 (#26 of 165), Grok 4.6 156.9 (#27 of 165) and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 156.2 (#32 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.2–159.7 vs 155.1–159.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 92.3%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Grok 4.6 66.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 65.6%, Claude Sonnet 5 65.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 0902 100%, Grok 4.6 99.2%, Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 47.3%, Claude Sonnet 5 33.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 and Claude Sonnet 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5 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 0902 and Claude Sonnet 5 have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 up to 131,072, Claude Sonnet 5 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Qwen3.8 Max 0902 accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Claude Sonnet 5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Grok 4.6, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 and Claude Sonnet 5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is the newest, released Sep 2, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026; Claude Sonnet 5 came out Jun 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5 Jan 31, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
