Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3-Max
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by xAI
|
by Alibaba
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current flagship | Current flagship |
| Released | Apr 30, 2026 | Jan 1, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.25/Mtok | $1.20/Mtok |
| Output | $2.50/Mtok | $6.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $1.56/Mtok | $2.40/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 262K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimage
|
text
|
| Benchmarks sources: xAI model card, Artificial Analysis / Alibaba model card | ||
| GPQA Diamond | 80 | 70 vendor |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 65 | 48 vendor |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 38 | 25 vendor |
| ARC-AGI 2 | 42 | 28 vendor |
| AIME 2025 | 85 | 72 vendor |
| MMMLU | 86 | 80 vendor |
| BFCL | 78 | 70 vendor |
| HumanEval | 90 | 86 vendor |
| MATH 500 | 88 | 78 vendor |
| Avg benchmark score | 72.4 | — |
| Perf / dollar | 46.3 | — |
| Independent composite scores each on its own scale — not part of the average above | ||
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1441.6 ELO | 1434.6 ELO |
| AA Intelligence Index | 37.9 | — |
| AA Agentic Index | 24.2 | — |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 18 | — |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
xAI — $1.25/$2.50/Mtok
|
Alibaba — $1.20/$6.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Grok 4.3 | Qwen3-Max | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $1.56 | $2.4 | $0.84 (35%) |
| 10M tokens | $15.63 | $24 | $8.38 (34.9%) |
| 100M tokens | $156.25 | $240 | $83.75 (34.9%) |
| 1000M tokens | $1562.5 | $2400 | $837.5 (34.9%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above- cost dominates: $1.56/Mtok blended vs $2.40 — 34.9% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- you need the longer context: 1M tokens vs 262K (3.8×)
- this pairing gives Qwen3-Max no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
The cheaper option here — Grok 4.3 costs $1.56/Mtok blended on xAI.
Summary
Grok 4.3 by xAI costs $1.25/Mtok input and $2.50/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image input.
Qwen3-Max by Alibaba costs $1.20/Mtok input and $6.00/Mtok output, with a 262K-token context window. It supports text input.
On a blended cost basis, Grok 4.3 is 34.9% cheaper than Qwen3-Max.It also has a larger context window.
The two aren't directly comparable on average benchmark score: Grok 4.3 has published per-benchmark results, while Qwen3-Max does not yet — it is measured today on independent composites (see the table above).
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.