Qwen3.8 Max vs GPT-6.1 Sol vs Grok 4.6
GPT-6.1 Sol comes out ahead, 69 to 65 and 61 on our weighted score, though Qwen3.8 Max is 25% cheaper per token.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-6.1 Sol
69/100- ECI—
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
xAIGrok 4.6
61/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
GPT-6.1 Sol is our pick
GPT-6.1 Sol is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.8 Max (65) and Grok 4.6 (61). It leads on capability. Qwen3.8 Max wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 and SimpleQA Verified), because GPT-6.1 Sol has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityGPT-6.1 SolShared benchmarks: GPT-6.1 Sol 90.7% · Qwen3.8 Max 78.2% · Grok 4.6 77.1%
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 Max and Grok 4.6Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 · GPT-6.1 Sol $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-6.1 SolGPT-6.1 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-6.1 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-6.1 Sol | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 78 | 91 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 21 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 80 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 48 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 69/100 | 61/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI | Grok 4.6xAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 | — | 156.6 (best) |
| ECI rank | #20 of 148 | — | #19 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 92.7% | 95.4% (best) | 94.0% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 74.7% | 93.7% (best) | 66.0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.4% | 100% (best) | 99.2% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 45.8% | 73.9% (best) | 49.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $10.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.25 | $0.10 (best) | $0.50 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $4.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $4.00 / $15.00 | 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-6.1-sol | grok-4.6 |
| API providers | 25 | 21 | 29 (best) |
| Released | Aug 3, 2026 | Sep 29, 2026 | Aug 12, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 30, 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-6.1 Sol$40.00
- Grok 4.6$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-6.1 Sol or Grok 4.6?
GPT-6.1 Sol is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.8 Max (65) and Grok 4.6 (61). It leads on capability. Qwen3.8 Max wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 and SimpleQA Verified), because GPT-6.1 Sol has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-6.1 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-6.1 Sol costs $2.00 input / $10.00 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 $4.00 for GPT-6.1 Sol (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 and SimpleQA Verified): GPT-6.1 Sol 90.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 78.2% and Grok 4.6 77.1%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-6.1 Sol 95.4%, Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-6.1 Sol 93.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-6.1 Sol 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-6.1 Sol 73.9%, 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-6.1 Sol and Grok 4.6 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-6.1 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-6.1 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-6.1 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-6.1 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-6.1 Sol and Grok 4.6 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
GPT-6.1 Sol is the newest, released Sep 29, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026; Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-6.1 Sol Apr 30, 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.
