Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs Grok 4.3

Qwen3.6-Plus vs Grok 4.3

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 22 results on 5 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.6-Plus Released 31 Mar 2026 · $0.33 in · $1.95 out
xAIGrok 4.3 Released 17 Apr 2026 · $1.25 in · $2.50 out
Qwen3.6-Plus wins 144 too close to callGrok 4.3 wins 4

Of the 22 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 14 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-14-7d7cf32c3f6d). See also Alibaba vs xAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.3? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.6-Plus: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 24.9) and costs less.

  • Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $1.56 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.
  • Qwen3.6-Plus scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 27.0 against 24.9.
  • Grok 4.3 is newer: released 17 Apr 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.6-Plus does better for agents and tool use, writing and sticking to the facts; Grok 4.3 for reasoning and knowledge.

Head to head

27.0
Intelligence Index
24.9
$0.73
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$1.56
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
1,000,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.6-PlusGrok 4.3
Price per million tokens$0.33 in · $1.95 out$1.25 in · $2.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.73$1.56
Cheapest host, blended–$1.56 (xAI)
Cached input, per million–$0.20 cached input
Intelligence Index27.024.9
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Released31 Mar 202617 Apr 2026 (newer)
WeightsClosedClosed
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 64 of 166 113 of 166
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 49 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 69 of 200 57 of 200
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 55 of 189 58 of 189
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 81 of 153 113 of 153

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.

MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGrok 4.3
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 82 of 387 measured 1,443 1,441
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 102 of 163 measured 1,438 1,428
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 90 of 380 measured 1,446 1,439
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 63 · 78 of 244 measured 27.0 24.9high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 41 of 231 measured 88.2% 90.1%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 85 · 54 of 243 measured 27.8% 37.2%high reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 38 · 55 of 76 measured 44.1% 33.2%high reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 50 of 230 measured 58.2thinking reasoning 57.7
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 124 of 230 measured 8.0%thinking reasoning 21.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 134 of 230 measured 0.35no reasoning 0.34
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 25 · 53 of 58 measured $5,115 $35.26
Show all 22 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGrok 4.3
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 68 of 385 measured 1,407 1,422
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 96 of 338 measured 1,476 1,452
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 103 of 387 measured 1,435 1,414
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 74 of 386 measured 1,423 1,424
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 73 of 130 measured 61.4% 39.7%high reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 68 of 121 measured 20.8% 12.4%high reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 71 of 131 measured 54.5 42.2high reasoning
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 29 · 1 of 195 measured 75.2% 83.3%medium reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 55 · 79 of 234 measured 78.3% 75.0%medium reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 23 · 39 of 190 measured 43.9% 37.9%high reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 7 · 7 of 193 measured 97.7% 97.7%high reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than Grok 4.3?

Pick Qwen3.6-Plus: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 24.9) and costs less.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $1.56 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 64 of 166 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 113 for Grok 4.3.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.3?

Grok 4.3 ranks 57 of 200 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 69 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 55 of 189 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 58 for Grok 4.3.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.3?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 81 of 153 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 113 for Grok 4.3.

Run Qwen3.6-Plus and Grok 4.3 on your own prompt

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