Model Comparison
Grok-4 Heavy vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17BWhich is better in 2026?
Grok-4 Heavy shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Verdict: Grok-4 Heavy vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B — which is better?
Grok-4 Heavy (by xAI) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Grok-4 Heavy outperforms in 2 benchmarks (HMMT25, Humanity's Last Exam), while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok-4 Heavy shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Choose Grok-4 Heavy if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 3 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if…
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok-4 Heavy outperforms in 2 benchmarks (HMMT25, Humanity's Last Exam), while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is better at 0 benchmarks.
Grok-4 Heavy shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3.5-397B-A17B specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3.5-397B-A17B specifies output context (64,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Grok-4 Heavy and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Grok-4 Heavy
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok-4 Heavy is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B was released on 2026-02-16, while Grok-4 Heavy's release date is not specified.
We can confirm Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's release timeline, but cannot make a direct age comparison without Grok-4 Heavy's release date.
—
Feb 16, 2026
5 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok-4 Heavy has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-12-31, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Grok-4 Heavy's training data extends to 2024-12-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's cutoff date.
Dec 2024
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Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok-4 Heavy and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Grok-4 Heavy vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.