Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) by SpaceXAI or Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 4.2 points higher (18.2 vs 14.0) but costs 4.2× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $216; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 14.0, and Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) when 14.0 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 14.0 | 18.2 | +30.0% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 30.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $215.93 | $896.39 | +315.1% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 4.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.71s | 46.08s | +707.0% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 707.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.25 / $2.50 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning): 30.0% more intelligence, 315.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 707.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning)Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-3-non-reasoning/qwen3-6-35b-a3b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-3-non-reasoning/qwen3-6-35b-a3b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill