Compare/Qwen3 Max vs Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Qwen3 MaxvsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-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 (Non-reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
189 tok/s
TTFT
0.31s

Winner by Category

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

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 MaxGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-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 (Non-reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 Max
33 tok/s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
189 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 Max
1.78s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
0.31s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
31.429.7
Coding Index
26.425.4
Math Index
80.7
GPQA Diamond
76.4%78.5%
MMLU-Pro
84.1%
LiveCodeBench
76.7%
AIME 2025
80.7%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
11.1%22.5%
SciCode
38.3%32.2%
IFBench
44.1%47.8%
TerminalBench
20.5%22.0%
Qwen3 Max7 wins
4 winsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-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 (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

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

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 189 tok/s vs 33 tok/s. However, Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.31s vs 1.78s).

When should I use Qwen3 Max vs Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)?

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