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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 Plus vs Grok 4.3

Too close to call on our weighted score (Grok 4.3 67, Qwen3.6 Plus 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Plus

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI147.6
    • Price$0.50 / $3.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Plus

  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

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus 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 Plus 147.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus $1.13 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · Grok 4.3 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 PlusGrok 4.3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7577
Price25%4741
Inputs & features15%7080
Context window10%6060
Overall100%66/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 Plus vs Grok 4.3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.3xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.6149.2 (best)
ECI rank#59 of 148#55 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.4%88.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics38.3%42.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3%93.3%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues57.9%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions44.1% (best)33.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50 (best)$1.25
Output$3.00$2.50 (best)
Cached input$0.05 (best)$0.20
Blended (3:1)$1.13 (best)$1.56
Long-context rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00Over 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-plusgrok-4.3
API providers1827 (best)
ReleasedApr 2, 2026Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025—
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 Plus$11.00
  • Grok 4.3$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Plus or Grok 4.3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Grok 4.3 67/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.3 for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Plus on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 input / $3.00 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 $1.13 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Plus versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (1.4× 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 Plus 147.6 (#59 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.6–150.8 vs 145.4–149.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Grok 4.3 42.8%, Qwen3.6 Plus 38.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, Grok 4.3 93.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1%, 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, 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?

Qwen3.6 Plus and Grok 4.3 share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.6 Plus and Grok 4.3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus came out Apr 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Plus 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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