Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) by SpaceXAI or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 1.2 points higher (45.4 vs 44.2) but costs 2.2× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $2242; both flagship class). Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Grok 4.6 (Xhigh).
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.2 | 45.4 | +2.7% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 2.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,241.91 | $4,934.79 | +120.1% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 2.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 37.86s | 64.07s | +69.2% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 69.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Grok 4.6 (Xhigh): 2.7% more intelligence, 120.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 69.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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