Qwen3.8 Max vs GPT-5.6 Sol vs Grok 4.6
Qwen3.8 Max comes out ahead, 69 to 66 and 65 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Sol
66/100- ECI161.8
- Price$4.00 / $20.00
- Context1.05M
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
Qwen3.8 Max is our pick
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against GPT-5.6 Sol (66) and Grok 4.6 (65). It leads on inputs & features. GPT-5.6 Sol wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5.6 SolCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.6 Sol 161.8 · Grok 4.6 156.6 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 Max and Grok 4.6Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 · GPT-5.6 Sol $8.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 Sol 1,050,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · GPT-5.6 Sol: Text, Images, PDFs · Grok 4.6: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.8 Max | GPT-5.6 Sol | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 93 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 7 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 80 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 48 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 66/100 | 65/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | Grok 4.6xAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 | 161.8 (best) | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #20 of 148 | #8 of 148 (best) | #19 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 92.7% | 93.5% | 94.0% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 74.7% | 89.1% (best) | 66.0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.4% | 100% (best) | 99.2% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 45.8% | 69.7% (best) | 49.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 (best) | $4.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $20.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.25 (best) | $0.40 | $0.50 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $8.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $8.00 / $30.00 | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official OpenAI API | Official xAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 500,000 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 500,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · xhigh | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3.8-max | gpt-5.6-sol | grok-4.6 |
| API providers | 25 | 40 (best) | 29 |
| Released | Aug 3, 2026 | Jul 9, 2026 | Aug 12, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Feb 16, 2026 | Feb 1, 2026 |
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 Max$32.00
- GPT-5.6 Sol$80.00
- Grok 4.6$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-5.6 Sol or Grok 4.6?
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against GPT-5.6 Sol (66) and Grok 4.6 (65). It leads on inputs & features. GPT-5.6 Sol wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-5.6 Sol or Grok 4.6?
Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); GPT-5.6 Sol costs $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $3.00 for Grok 4.6 (1× as much) and $8.00 for GPT-5.6 Sol (2.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5.6 Sol scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.6 Sol 161.8 (#8 of 148), Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148) and Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (159.3–165.3 vs 154.7–158.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, GPT-5.6 Sol 93.5%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.6 Sol 89.1%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.6 Sol 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-5.6 Sol 69.7%, Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-5.6 Sol and Grok 4.6 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.6 Sol 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?
GPT-5.6 Sol has the largest context window at 1,050,000 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max and 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, GPT-5.6 Sol up to 128,000, Grok 4.6 up to 500,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video; GPT-5.6 Sol accepts text, images and PDFs; Grok 4.6 accepts text and images. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-5.6 Sol and Grok 4.6 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; GPT-5.6 Sol came out Jul 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5.6 Sol Feb 16, 2026, 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.
