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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 Max vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 69, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max

    Released Aug 3, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max

  2. xAI

    Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

    Released Mar 9, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI152.0
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8681
Price25%2741
Inputs & features15%9080
Context window10%6060
Overall100%69/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.8 Max vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)152.0
ECI rank#20 of 148 (best)#41 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.7% (best)89.3%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics74.7% (best)44.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.4% (best)92.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions45.8% (best)30.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$1.25 (best)
Output$6.00$2.50 (best)
Cached input$0.25$0.20 (best)
Blended (3:1)$3.00$1.56 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · xhighYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.8-maxgrok-4.20-0309-reasoning
API providers25 (best)11
ReleasedAug 3, 2026Mar 9, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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 Max$32.00
  • Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max or Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max or Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)?

Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.56 per million tokens for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 (#41 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 149.3–154.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 89.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 44.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 92.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 30.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max 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?

Qwen3.8 Max and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) accepts text, images and PDFs. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.8 Max and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) came out Mar 9, 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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