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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B vs Grok 4.6

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 27B 67, Grok 4.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 27B

    Released Aug 14, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.4
    • Price$0.40 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 27B

  2. xAI

    Grok 4.6

    Released Aug 12, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context500K
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.6

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.8 27B 67/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability and Qwen3.8 27B on price. 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 27B 149.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3.8 27BQwen3.8 27B $0.925 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.6Grok 4.6 500,000 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 27BQwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Grok 4.6: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 27BGrok 4.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7786
Price25%5127
Inputs & features15%8070
Context window10%3748
Overall100%67/10065/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.8 27B vs Grok 4.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.6xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.4156.6 (best)
ECI rank#53 of 148#19 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—94.0%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—66.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—99.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—49.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$2.00
Output$2.50 (best)$6.00
Cached input—$0.50
Blended (3:1)$0.925 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $4.00 / $12.00
Price sourceMedian of 39 providersOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens500,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens500,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—grok-4.6
API providers41 (best)29
ReleasedAug 14, 2026Aug 12, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Feb 1, 2026
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.

  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
  • Grok 4.6$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 27B or Grok 4.6?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.8 27B 67/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability and Qwen3.8 27B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 27B or Grok 4.6?

Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers). Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.925 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 27B versus $3.00 for Grok 4.6 (3.2× 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) and Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 147.5–151.6), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 27B and Grok 4.6 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. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.6 has the largest context window at 500,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, Grok 4.6 up to 500,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; Grok 4.6 accepts text and images. Qwen3.8 27B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.6 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 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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