Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs Grok 4.6

Qwen3.6-Plus vs Grok 4.6

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 19 results on 5 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.6-Plus Released 31 Mar 2026 · $0.33 in · $1.95 out
xAIGrok 4.6 Released 12 Aug 2026 · $2.00 in · $6.00 out
Qwen3.6-Plus wins 12 too close to callGrok 4.6 wins 16

Of the 19 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc). See also Alibaba vs xAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.6? The short answer

Pick Grok 4.6 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 44.3 against 27.0). Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if cost matters more: it costs 4.1 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $3.00 per million tokens, 4.1 times less.
  • Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 44.3 against 27.0.
  • Grok 4.6 is newer: released 12 Aug 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Grok 4.6 does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

27.0
Intelligence Index
44.3
$0.73
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$3.00
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
500,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.6-PlusGrok 4.6
Price per million tokens$0.33 in · $1.95 out$2.00 in · $6.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.73$3.00
Cheapest host, blended–$3.00 (xAI)
Cached input, per million–$0.50 cached input
Intelligence Index27.044.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,000,000 tokens500,000 tokens
Released31 Mar 202612 Aug 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 63 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 67 of 198 13 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 54 of 188 44 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 80 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.

MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGrok 4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 62 of 387 measured 1,443 1,454high reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 62 of 163 measured 1,438 1,449high reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 72 of 380 measured 1,446 1,447high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 16 of 243 measured 27.0 44.3high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 3 of 231 measured 88.2% 94.9%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 22 of 242 measured 27.8% 44.1%xhigh reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 38 · 26 of 76 measured 44.1% 49.3%high reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 34 of 230 measured 58.2thinking reasoning 63.3
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 147 of 230 measured 8.0%thinking reasoning 25.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 76 of 230 measured 0.35no reasoning 0.36
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 25 · 6 of 58 measured $5,115 $9,047
Show all 19 results (8 more)
MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGrok 4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 43 of 385 measured 1,407 1,445high reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 52 of 338 measured 1,476 1,491high reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 53 of 387 measured 1,435 1,451high reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 52 of 386 measured 1,423 1,445high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 6 of 130 measured 61.4% 88.4%high reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 2 of 121 measured 20.8% 50.7%high reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 5 of 131 measured 54.5 76.8high reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 31 of 233 measured 78.3% 81.0%medium reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than Grok 4.6?

Pick Grok 4.6 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 44.3 against 27.0). Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if cost matters more: it costs 4.1 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.6?

Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $3.00 per million tokens, 4.1 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus 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 63 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 ranks 13 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 67 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus 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 54 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 ranks 56 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 80 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6-Plus or Grok 4.6?

Qwen3.6-Plus: 1,000,000 tokens, against 500,000 for Grok 4.6.

Run Qwen3.6-Plus and Grok 4.6 on your own prompt

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