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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. Grok 4 vs Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Grok 4 vs Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) is more budget-friendly at $0.78/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Grok 4 if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
Share Analysis:
WhatsAppTelegramXLinkedInReddit
xAI
Grok 4

Previous xAI flagship.

Grok 4.0Elo 1,488$15/1M out
Alibaba
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (qwen/qwen-plus-2025-07-28:thinking). Preview until a second source matches.

$0.78/1M out

Grok 4 Series Family & Variants (2)

Speed, cost, and intelligence tradeoffs across the xAI lineup

vs Base Model
Grok 4.6
xAI
Base Model
Fast Route
Elo1592
Speed118 t/s
In /1M$2
Out /1M$6
View specs →vs this
Grok 4
xAI
Grok 4.0
Elo1488
Speed98 t/s
In /1M$3
Out /1M$15
-104 Elo+150% price0.8x speed
Selected
Top Rival Showdowns for Grok 4
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs DeepSeek V4 Provs Qwen 3 Max
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar Leader

Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

$0.78 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

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 4/6
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Grok 4 (6)vsQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (3)
Grok 4: 6W (67%)Overall: Grok 4Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): 3W (33%)
← Grok 4Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) →
Grok 4 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo
1,488vs—
Coding Elo
—vs—
SWE-bench
58.6%vs—
LiveBench
64.1%vs—
GPQA Diamond
79%vs—
Grok 4: 4WQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): 0W
Grok 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed
98 tok/svs—
Time to first token
230 msvs—
Grok 4: 2WQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): 0W
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price
$15/1Mvs$0.78/1M
Input price
$3/1Mvs$0.26/1M
Context window
256kvs1M
Grok 4: 0WQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): 3W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo
Grok 41,488
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)—
LiveBench
Grok 464.1%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)—
SWE-bench
Grok 458.6%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)—
GPQA Diamond
Grok 479%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)—
Time to first token
Grok 4230 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)—
Output speed
Grok 498 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)—
Input priceQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (+$2.74/1M)
Grok 4$3/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)$0.26/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Output priceQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (+$14.22/1M)
Grok 4$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)$0.78/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Context windowQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (+744k)
Grok 4256k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
BenchmarkGrok 4Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)Advantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,488
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
LiveBench
64.1%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
SWE-bench
58.6%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
GPQA Diamond
79%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Time to first token
230 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Output speed
98 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Input price
$3/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$0.26/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (+$2.74/1M)
Output price
$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$0.78/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (+$14.22/1M)
Context window
256k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) (+744k)
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 94% with Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)
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$330.00 / mo
In: $105Out: $225
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)$20.80 / mo
In: $9.1Out: $11.7
Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) is estimated to save $309.20/month ($3,710/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking):Pick Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 2
    Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking):Pick Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

Lower output list price ($0.78/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4

Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)Lower output list price ($0.78/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGQwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / visionGrok 4Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
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.

Community Sentiment

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Share card

The real PNG is generated at /compare/grok-4-vs-qwen-plus-2025-07-28-thinking/opengraph-image for crawlers.

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CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE
VS
xAI

Grok 4

Elo 1,488
LiveBench64.1%
SWE-bench58.6%
Speed98 tok/s
Output cost$15/1M
Alibaba

Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

Elo n/a
LiveBench—
SWE-bench—
Speed—
Output cost$0.78/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) output tokens are $0.78/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) accepts 1M tokens versus 256k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
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 and Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • launch · Jul 10, 2025

    Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Grok 4 matchups →|All Qwen: Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) matchups →
Grok 4 vs Grok 3 (previous grok)Grok 4 vs Grok 4.6 (next grok)Qwen 3 Max vs Grok 4Qwen QwQ 32B vs Grok 4Qwen 2.5 Plus vs Grok 4Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct vs Grok 4