Model Comparison

Grok 4.5 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3BWhich is better in 2026?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Grok 4.5 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B — which is better?

Grok 4.5 (by xAI) and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (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 4.5 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GDPval-AA, GPQA, SWE-Bench Pro), while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Grok 4.5 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Grok 4.5 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GDPval-AA, GPQA, SWE-Bench Pro), while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 0 benchmarks.

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.5 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.5
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Grok 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Grok 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.5 was released on 2026-07-16, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B was released on 2026-04-16.

Grok 4.5 is 3 months newer than Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.

Grok 4.5

Jul 16, 2026

5 days ago

3mo newer
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apr 16, 2026

3 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.5's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3.6-35B-A3B's cutoff date.

Grok 4.5

Feb 2026

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

—

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

xAI
Larger context window (500,000 tokens)
Higher GDPval-AA score (51.4% vs 35.2%)
Higher GPQA score (93.0% vs 86.0%)
Higher SWE-Bench Pro score (64.7% vs 49.5%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok 4.5
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.5 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.

Which is better, Grok 4.5 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok 4.5 is made by xAI and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Grok 4.5 compare to Qwen3.6-35B-A3B in benchmarks?

Grok 4.5 scores GPQA: 93.0%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 83.3%, Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index v1.1: 76.0%, SWE-Bench Pro: 64.7%, AA-Omniscience Index: 63.0%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scores MMLU-Redux: 93.3%, MMBench-V1.1: 92.8%, AI2D: 92.7%, AIME 2026: 92.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 92.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Grok 4.5 supports 500K tokens and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Grok 4.5 is developed by xAI and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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