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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 comes out ahead, 67 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  2. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Grok 4.3 is our pick

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.3Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 $1.56 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.3Qwen3 Max: Text · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxGrok 4.3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6877
Price25%3241
Inputs & features15%2580
Context window10%3760
Overall100%50/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 Max vs Grok 4.3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.3xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4149.2 (best)
ECI rank#91 of 148#55 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6%88.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%42.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3%93.3% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8% (best)33.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20 (best)$1.25
Output$6.00$2.50 (best)
Cached input—$0.20
Blended (3:1)$2.40$1.56 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3-maxgrok-4.3
API providers1627 (best)
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025—
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 Max$24.00
  • Grok 4.3$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Grok 4.3?

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Grok 4.3?

Grok 4.3 is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 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 4.3 versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.6–150.8 vs 140.0–144.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Grok 4.3 42.8%, Qwen3 Max 19.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, Grok 4.3 33.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Grok 4.3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.3 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 4.3 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 Max. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Grok 4.3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3 Max and Grok 4.3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025.

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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