Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Grok 4.3 vs GLM-5.1
Grok 4.3 comes out ahead, 67 to 57 and 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
- Our pick
xAIGrok 4.3
67/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.25 / $2.50
- Context1M
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-5.1
57/100- ECI149.9
- Price$1.40 / $4.40
- Context200K
Grok 4.3 is our pick
Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGLM-5.1Capabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.1 149.9 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 · Grok 4.3 149.2
- Lowest priceGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 $1.56 · GLM-5.1 $2.15 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · GLM-5.1 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGrok 4.3Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · GLM-5.1: Text
- Self-hostingGLM-5.1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Grok 4.3 | GLM-5.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 77 | 77 | 78 |
| Price | 25% | 28 | 41 | 34 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 80 | 45 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 60 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 54/100 | 67/100 | 57/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) | Grok 4.3xAI | GLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 149.2 | 149.2 | 149.9 (best) |
| ECI rank | #54 of 148 | #55 of 148 | #51 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 87.4% | 88.8% | 89.9% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 42.8% (best) | 36.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 91.1% | 93.3% (best) | 93.3% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 76.7% (best) | — | 74.2% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 52.0% (best) | 33.2% | 34.0% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.30 | $1.25 (best) | $1.40 |
| Output | $7.80 | $2.50 (best) | $4.40 |
| Cached input | $0.13 (best) | $0.20 | $0.26 |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.92 | $1.56 (best) | $2.15 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $2.50 / $5.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official xAI API | Official Z.AI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 30,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3.6-max-preview | grok-4.3 | glm-5.1 |
| API providers | 10 | 27 | 40 (best) |
| Released | Apr 20, 2026 | Apr 17, 2026 | Apr 7, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | — | — |
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 Max Preview$28.60
- Grok 4.3$17.50
- GLM-5.1$22.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Grok 4.3 or GLM-5.1?
Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Grok 4.3 or GLM-5.1?
Grok 4.3 is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). GLM-5.1 costs $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price); Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.56 per million tokens for Grok 4.3 versus $2.15 for GLM-5.1 (1.4× as much) and $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (1.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GLM-5.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.1 149.9 (#51 of 148), Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148) and Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (148.0–151.6 vs 147.6–152.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GLM-5.1 89.9%, Grok 4.3 88.8%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, GLM-5.1 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, GLM-5.1 34.0%, Grok 4.3 33.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GLM-5.1 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?
Grok 4.3 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview and 200,000 for GLM-5.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, GLM-5.1 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs; GLM-5.1 accepts text. Grok 4.3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-5.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Grok 4.3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. Grok 4.3 came out Apr 17, 2026; GLM-5.1 came out Apr 7, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025.
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.
