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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Grok 4.3

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, Grok 4.3 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

  2. xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Grok 4.3 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.3Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 35B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 35B-A3BGrok 4.3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7077
Price25%6241
Inputs & features15%9080
Context window10%3760
Overall100%68/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Grok 4.3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.3xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)143.9149.2 (best)
ECI rank#83 of 148#55 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.9%88.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics20.4%42.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7%93.3% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—33.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.248 (best)$1.25
Output$1.49 (best)$2.50
Cached input—$0.20
Blended (3:1)$0.557 (best)$1.56
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-35b-a3bgrok-4.3
API providers34 (best)27
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
  • Grok 4.3$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Grok 4.3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Grok 4.3 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.557 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (2.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.6–150.8 vs 141.2–146.0), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Grok 4.3 42.8%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 20.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Grok 4.3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.3 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Grok 4.3 came out Apr 17, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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