Compare/Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 Max (Preview)

Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)vsQwen3 Max (Preview)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

xAI

Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
94 tok/s
TTFT
30.68s
Alibaba

Qwen3 Max (Preview)

Input
$1.2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
48 tok/s
TTFT
1.72s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 Max (Preview)
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)
Lower Latency
Qwen3 Max (Preview)
Benchmarks (7-4)
Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricGrok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)Qwen3 Max (Preview)
Input ($/M tokens)$2$1.2
Output ($/M tokens)$6$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)$2.60
Qwen3 Max (Preview)$1.80

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)
94 tok/s
Qwen3 Max (Preview)
48 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)
30.68s
Qwen3 Max (Preview)
1.72s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
48.526.1
Coding Index
42.225.5
Math Index
75.0
GPQA Diamond
88.5%76.4%
MMLU-Pro
83.8%
LiveCodeBench
65.1%
AIME 2025
75.0%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
30.0%9.3%
SciCode
44.7%37.0%
IFBench
82.9%48.0%
TerminalBench
40.9%19.7%
Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning)7 wins
4 winsQwen3 Max (Preview)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) or Qwen3 Max (Preview)?

Qwen3 Max (Preview) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $2.40/M tokens vs $3.00/M for Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 4 for Qwen3 Max (Preview). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 94 tok/s vs 48 tok/s. However, Qwen3 Max (Preview) has lower time-to-first-token (1.72s vs 30.68s).

When should I use Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 Max (Preview)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 Max (Preview) for lower cost, Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4.20 0309 (Reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.