Compare/Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 Max Thinking

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)vsQwen3 Max Thinking

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

xAI

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
238 tok/s
TTFT
10.94s
Alibaba

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Input
$1.2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
34 tok/s
TTFT
1.58s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
Lower Latency
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Benchmarks (7-0)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

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

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
238 tok/s
Qwen3 Max Thinking
34 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
10.94s
Qwen3 Max Thinking
1.58s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
48.539.9
Coding Index
42.230.5
Math Index
GPQA Diamond
88.5%86.1%
MMLU-Pro
LiveCodeBench
AIME 2025
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
30.0%26.2%
SciCode
44.7%43.1%
IFBench
82.9%70.7%
TerminalBench
40.9%24.2%
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)7 wins
0 winsQwen3 Max Thinking

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Qwen3 Max Thinking. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 238 tok/s vs 34 tok/s. However, Qwen3 Max Thinking has lower time-to-first-token (1.58s vs 10.94s).

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

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