Compare / Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 vs Grok 4.6

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 vs Grok 4.6

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 14 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 Released 21 Jul 2025 · $0.15 in · $0.75 out
xAIGrok 4.6 Released 12 Aug 2026 · $2.00 in · $6.00 out
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 wins 2Grok 4.6 wins 12

Of the 14 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs xAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6? The short answer

Pick Grok 4.6 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 44.3 against 12.0). Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 10 times less per token.

  • Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is cheaper: $0.30 against $3.00 per million tokens, 10 times less.
  • Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 44.3 against 12.0.
  • Grok 4.6 is newer: released 12 Aug 2026, against 21 Jul 2025 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Grok 4.6 does better for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

12.0
Intelligence Index
44.3
$0.30
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$3.00
262,144
Context window, tokens
500,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507Grok 4.6
Price per million tokens$0.15 in · $0.75 out$2.00 in · $6.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.30$3.00
Cheapest host, blended$0.15 (GMICloud, FP8)$3.00 (xAI)
Cached input, per million–$0.50 cached input
Intelligence Index12.044.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window262,144 tokens500,000 tokens
Released21 Jul 202512 Aug 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 51 of 164 10 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 16 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 129 of 198 13 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 85 of 188 44 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 98 of 152 56 of 152

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507Grok 4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 109 · 62 of 387 measured 1,422 1,454high reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 94 · 62 of 163 measured 1,431 1,449high reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 97 · 72 of 380 measured 1,432 1,447high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 153 · 16 of 243 measured 12.0 44.3high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 136 · 3 of 231 measured 75.3% 94.9%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 144 · 22 of 242 measured 11.1% 44.1%xhigh reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 80 · 34 of 230 measured 49.0 63.3
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 69 · 147 of 230 measured 15.0% 25.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 64 · 76 of 230 measured 0.36 0.36
Show all 14 results (5 more)
MeasureQwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507Grok 4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 122 · 43 of 385 measured 1,378 1,445high reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 103 · 52 of 338 measured 1,447 1,491high reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 104 · 53 of 387 measured 1,414 1,451high reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 115 · 52 of 386 measured 1,396 1,445high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 1 result
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 177 · 31 of 233 measured 33.9% 81.0%medium reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 better than Grok 4.6?

Pick Grok 4.6 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 44.3 against 12.0). Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 10 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6?

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is cheaper: $0.30 against $3.00 per million tokens, 10 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 ranks 10 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 51 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 ranks 13 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 129 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 ranks 44 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 85 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 ranks 56 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 98 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6: 500,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.

Run Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 and Grok 4.6 on your own prompt

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