Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

Name: Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Qwen3 235B (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Grok 4.6 is ahead by 152 points (1,592 vs 1,440; seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Grok 4.6 resolves 69.1% versus 59.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). Grok 4.6 streams faster (118 tok/s) while Qwen3 235B is the cheaper output token ($1.82/1M). Grok 4.6 has the larger context window (500k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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xAI

Grok 4.6

xAI Aug 12 2026 post-training refresh of Grok 4.5. Same $2/$6 API price, 500k context, stronger agentic traces.

Elo 1,592$6/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Open-weight Qwen3 mixture-of-experts.

Elo 1,440$1.8199999999999998/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Grok 4.6 (8)vsQwen3 235B (2)

Grok 4.6: 8W (80%)Overall: Grok 4.6Qwen3 235B: 2W (20%)

← Grok 4.6Qwen3 235B →

Grok 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,592vs1,440

Coding Elo

1,568vs—

SWE-bench

69.1%vs59.4%

LiveBench

71.4%vs63.5%

GPQA Diamond

84.6%vs76.8%

Grok 4.6: 5WQwen3 235B: 0W

Grok 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

118 tok/svs74 tok/s

Time to first token

195 msvs320 ms

Grok 4.6: 2WQwen3 235B: 0W

Qwen3 235B (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$6/1Mvs$1.82/1M

Input price

$2/1Mvs$0.45/1M

Context window

500kvs131k

Grok 4.6: 1WQwen3 235B: 2W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageGrok 4.6 5/6

Preference Elo

Grok 4.6

152 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Grok 4.6

44 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Qwen3 235B

$4.18/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+11%1,592

EloHigh is better

1,440

Code Elo

High is better

1,568

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

+12%71.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

63.5%

SWE-bench

High is better

+16%69.1%

SWE-benchHigh is better

59.4%

GPQA

High is better

+10%84.6%

GPQAHigh is better

76.8%

TTFT

Low is better

+64%195 ms

TTFTLow is better

320 ms

Speed

High is better

+59%118 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

74 tok/s

In $

Low is better

$2/1M

In $Low is better

$0.45/1M+340%

Out $

Low is better

$6/1M

Out $Low is better

$1.82/1M+230%

Context

High is better

+281%500k

ContextHigh is better

131k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 73% with Qwen3 235B

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Grok 4.6$160.00 / mo

In: $70.00Out: $90.00

Qwen3 235B$43.22 / mo

In: $15.92Out: $27.30

Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen3 235B is estimated to save $116.78/month ($1,401/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Grok 4.6:Pick Grok 4.6 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Qwen3 235B:Pick Qwen3 235B when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Grok 4.6:Pick Grok 4.6 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGrok 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).

High-volume chatQwen3 235B

Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4.6

Lower TTFT (195 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 4.6

Larger window (500k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Grok 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).
High-volume chat	Qwen3 235B	Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 4.6	Lower TTFT (195 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 4.6	Larger window (500k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4.6	Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

compareAug 12, 2026

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Brand hub remaps to top xAI vs top OpenAI. After Aug 12 that is Grok 4.6 vs Sol.

launchAug 12, 2026

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

xAI’s Aug 12 2026 refresh of Grok 4.5. 500k context. The Grok vs ChatGPT hub remaps here.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

launchJul 10, 2025

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

2025-07 row. 4.6 is the buy. We keep 4 so upgrade pairs and old inbound links resolve.

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LIVE

xAI

Grok 4.6

Elo 1,592

LiveBench71.4%

SWE-bench69.1%

Speed118 tok/s

Output cost$6/1M

Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Elo 1,440

LiveBench63.5%

SWE-bench59.4%

Speed74 tok/s

Output cost$1.82/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?: Grok 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,592). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?: Grok 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 69.1% vs 59.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Qwen3 235B output tokens are $1.82/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?: Grok 4.6 has the lower time-to-first-token (195 ms vs 320 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Grok 4.6 accepts 500k tokens versus 131k.
Can I self-host either model?: Qwen3 235B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Grok 4.6 and Qwen3 235B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Grok 4.6 matchups →|All Qwen3 235B matchups →

Grok 4.6 vs Grok 4 (previous grok)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B (previous qwen)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen QwQ 32B (next qwen)Qwen 3 Max vs Grok 4.6 Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.6 GPT-5.6 Sol vs Grok 4.6

Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Grok 4.6 (8)vsQwen3 235B (2)

Grok 4.6: 8W (80%)Overall: Grok 4.6Qwen3 235B: 2W (20%)

← Grok 4.6Qwen3 235B →

Grok 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,592vs1,440

Coding Elo

1,568vs—

SWE-bench

69.1%vs59.4%

LiveBench

71.4%vs63.5%

GPQA Diamond

84.6%vs76.8%

Grok 4.6: 5WQwen3 235B: 0W

Grok 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

118 tok/svs74 tok/s

Time to first token

195 msvs320 ms

Grok 4.6: 2WQwen3 235B: 0W

Qwen3 235B (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$6/1Mvs$1.82/1M

Input price

$2/1Mvs$0.45/1M

Context window

500kvs131k

Grok 4.6: 1WQwen3 235B: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGrok 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).

High-volume chatQwen3 235B

Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4.6

Lower TTFT (195 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 4.6

Larger window (500k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Grok 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).
High-volume chat	Qwen3 235B	Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 4.6	Lower TTFT (195 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 4.6	Larger window (500k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4.6	Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?

Grok 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,592). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?

Grok 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 69.1% vs 59.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Qwen3 235B output tokens are $1.82/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?

Grok 4.6 has the lower time-to-first-token (195 ms vs 320 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Grok 4.6 accepts 500k tokens versus 131k.

Can I self-host either model?

Qwen3 235B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Grok 4.6 and Qwen3 235B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Grok 4.6

Grok 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

Grok 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Grok 4.6

Grok 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Grok 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons