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

Qwen3 MaxvsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

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

Alibaba

Qwen3 Max

Input
$1.2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
33 tok/s
TTFT
1.78s
xAI

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

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

Winner by Category

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

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 MaxGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$1.2$2
Output ($/M tokens)$6$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Qwen3 Max$1.80
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 Max
33 tok/s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
238 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 Max
1.78s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
10.94s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
31.448.5
Coding Index
26.442.2
Math Index
80.7
GPQA Diamond
76.4%88.5%
MMLU-Pro
84.1%
LiveCodeBench
76.7%
AIME 2025
80.7%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
11.1%30.0%
SciCode
38.3%44.7%
IFBench
44.1%82.9%
TerminalBench
20.5%40.9%
Qwen3 Max4 wins
7 winsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Qwen3 Max 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 4 for Qwen3 Max. 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 33 tok/s. Qwen3 Max also has lower time-to-first-token (1.78s vs 10.94s).

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

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 Max 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.