Grok 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen3.8 Max comes out ahead, 69 to 66 and 65 on our weighted score.
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5
66/100- ECI156.3
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Qwen3.8 Max is our pick
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Claude Sonnet 5 (66) and Grok 4.6 (65). It leads on inputs & features. 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 · Claude Sonnet 5 156.3
- Lowest priceGrok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.6 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Sonnet 5 and Qwen3.8 MaxClaude Sonnet 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: 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 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 86 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 21 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 66/100 | 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 5Anthropic | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 (best) | 156.3 | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #19 of 148 (best) | #23 of 148 | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.0% (best) | 90.5% | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% | 65.6% | 74.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.2% | 94.7% | 99.4% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 49.3% (best) | 33.7% | 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 | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 29 | 38 (best) | 25 |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | Aug 3, 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
- Claude Sonnet 5$40.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Claude Sonnet 5 (66) and Grok 4.6 (65). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6, Claude Sonnet 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 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 (1.3× 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 Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 (#23 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%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%, Claude Sonnet 5 65.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%, Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Claude Sonnet 5 33.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6, Claude Sonnet 5 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?
Claude Sonnet 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 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 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 and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 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 Oct 4, 2026.
