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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 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Grok 4.6 delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,592 vs 1,440), while Grok 4.6 leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (69.1%), while Qwen3 235B is more budget-friendly at $0.88/1M per 1M output tokens, while Grok 4.6 provides faster response streaming (118 tok/s). Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Grok 4.6 if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose Qwen3 235B if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

9 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Grok 4.6 (7)Qwen3 235B (2)
Grok 4.6
7 of 9 Wins
✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond✓Time to first token✓Output speed✓Context window
Qwen3 235B
2 of 9 Wins
✓Input price✓Output price
xAI
Leads 7 of 9 metrics
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
Leads 2 of 9 metrics
Qwen3 235B

Open-weight Qwen3 mixture-of-experts.

235B MoEElo 1,440$0.88/1M out

Grok 4 Series Lineage & Sibling Variants

2 models

Currently comparing Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B. Alternative family tiers available.

Active: Grok 4.6
Grok 4$15
Top Rival Showdowns for Grok 4.6
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs DeepSeek V4 Provs Qwen 3 Max
Preference LeaderGrok 4.6 Wins

Grok 4.6

Δ 152 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderGrok 4.6 Wins

Grok 4.6

118 tok/s

Value per Dollar LeaderQwen3 235B Wins

Qwen3 235B

$0.88 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

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

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
Percentile 0–100
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

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

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

Benchmark
Grok 4.6vsQwen3 235B
Preference Elo
1,592vs1,440+152
Coding Elo
1,568vs—
SWE-bench
69.1%vs59.4%+9.7%
LiveBench
71.4%vs63.5%+7.9%
GPQA Diamond
84.6%vs76.8%+7.8%
Grok 4.6: 5WQwen3 235B: 0W
🏆Grok 4.6(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Grok 4.6vsQwen3 235B
Output speed
118 tok/svs74 tok/s+44 tok/s
Time to first token
195 msvs320 ms+125 ms
Grok 4.6: 2WQwen3 235B: 0W
🏆Qwen3 235B(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Grok 4.6vsQwen3 235B
Output price
$6/1Mvs$0.88/1M+$5.12/1M
Input price
$2/1Mvs$0.22/1M+$1.78/1M
Context window
500kvs131k+369k
Grok 4.6: 1WQwen3 235B: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+152
Grok 4.61,592
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B1,440
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Coding Elo
Grok 4.61,568
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B—
LiveBench+7.9%
Grok 4.671.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B63.5%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
SWE-bench+9.7%
Grok 4.669.1%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B59.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPQA Diamond+7.8%
Grok 4.684.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B76.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Time to first token+125 ms
Grok 4.6195 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B320 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output speed+44 tok/s
Grok 4.6118 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B74 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Input price+$1.78/1M
Grok 4.6$2/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B$0.22/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output price+$5.12/1M
Grok 4.6$6/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B$0.88/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Context window+369k
Grok 4.6500k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Qwen3 235B131k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3 235BAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,592
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
1,440
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+152
Coding Elo
1,568
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
——
LiveBench
71.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
63.5%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+7.9%
SWE-bench
69.1%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
59.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+9.7%
GPQA Diamond
84.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
76.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+7.8%
Time to first token
195 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
320 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+125 ms
Output speed
118 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
74 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+44 tok/s
Input price
$2/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
$0.22/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$1.78/1M
Output price
$6/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
$0.88/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$5.12/1M
Context window
500k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
131k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+369k
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 87% 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: $70Out: $90
Qwen3 235B$20.90 / mo
In: $7.7Out: $13.2
Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen3 235B is estimated to save $139.10/month ($1,669/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 ($0.88/1M).

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 WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsGrok 4.6Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).
High-volume chatQwen3 235BLower output list price ($0.88/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4.6Lower TTFT (195 ms).
Long-document RAGGrok 4.6Larger window (500k).
Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6Grok 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.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
xAI

Grok 4.6

Elo 1,592
SWE-bench69.1%
Speed (tok/s)118 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$2/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$6/1M
Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Elo 1,440
SWE-bench59.4%
Speed (tok/s)74 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$0.22/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0.88/1M

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 $0.88/1M 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.

Related news

  • compare · Aug 12, 2026

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

  • launch · Aug 12, 2026

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

  • launch · Sep 20, 2025

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

  • launch · Jul 10, 2025

    Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

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 4.6Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.6GPT-5.6 Sol vs Grok 4.6