Grok 4.6 (High) vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (High) by SpaceXAI or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (High) scores 4.5 points higher (44.3 vs 39.8) but costs 5.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1963 vs $363; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (High) when you need intelligence above 39.8, and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next when 39.8 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (High) | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.3 | 39.8 | −10.2% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 10.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,962.90 | $362.72 | −81.5% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 81.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 34.90s | 50.52s | +44.8% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 44.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.15 / $0.47 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs Grok 4.6 (High): 10.2% less intelligence, 81.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Grok 4.6 (High)Qwen3.8-Flash-NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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