Qwen3.8 Max vs GPT-6 Astra vs Grok 4.6
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 69, GPT-6 Astra 68, Grok 4.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
OpenAIGPT-6 Astra
68/100- ECI166.5
- Price$10.00 / $50.00
- Context1.05M
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, GPT-6 Astra 68/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-6 Astra for raw capability and Qwen3.8 Max on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-6 AstraCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-6 Astra 166.5 · 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-6 Astra $20.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-6 AstraGPT-6 Astra 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 Astra: 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 Astra | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 99 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 0 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 80 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 48 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 68/100 | 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-6 AstraOpenAI | Grok 4.6xAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 | 166.5 (best) | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #20 of 148 | #2 of 148 (best) | #19 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 92.7% | 95.8% (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% | 75.6% (best) | 49.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 (best) | $10.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 (best) | $50.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.25 (best) | $1.00 | $0.50 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $20.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $20.00 / $75.00 | 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-astra | grok-4.6 |
| API providers | 25 | 26 | 29 (best) |
| Released | Aug 3, 2026 | Sep 4, 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 Astra$200.00
- Grok 4.6$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-6 Astra or Grok 4.6?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, GPT-6 Astra 68/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-6 Astra for raw capability and Qwen3.8 Max on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max, GPT-6 Astra 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 Astra costs $10.00 input / $50.00 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 $20.00 for GPT-6 Astra (6.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-6 Astra scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-6 Astra 166.5 (#2 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 (163.1–171.1 vs 154.7–158.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-6 Astra 95.8%, Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-6 Astra 93.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-6 Astra 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-6 Astra 75.6%, 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 Astra and Grok 4.6 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-6 Astra 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 Astra 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 Astra 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 Astra 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 Astra and Grok 4.6 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
GPT-6 Astra is the newest, released Sep 4, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026; Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-6 Astra 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.
