Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Sonnet 5.5 72, Qwen3.8 Max 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
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5.5
72/100- ECI165.2
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
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 2 points (Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Grok 4.6 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 165.2 · Grok 4.6 156.6 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6
- Lowest priceGrok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.6 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.8 MaxClaude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.6: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 97 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 21 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 72/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.6xAI | Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 | 165.2 (best) | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #19 of 148 | #3 of 148 (best) | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.0% | 95.6% (best) | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% | 88.8% (best) | 74.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.2% | 100% (best) | 99.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 49.3% (best) | 46.5% | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $10.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.50 | $0.20 (best) | $0.25 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $4.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Official Anthropic API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 500,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | grok-4.6 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 29 (best) | 23 | 25 |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Sep 28, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 1, 2026 | Jun 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
- Claude Sonnet 5.5$40.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 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, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Grok 4.6 is cheaper at $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); Claude Sonnet 5.5 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 (1× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 165.2 (#3 of 148), Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148) and Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (161.8–169.4 vs 154.7–158.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 5.5 95.6%, Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5.5 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?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max 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, Claude Sonnet 5.5 up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Grok 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the newest, released Sep 28, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026; Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Jun 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.
