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Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3.8-27B

Grok 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (DeepSWE 1.1), while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok 4.6

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen3.8-27B

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Qwen3.8-27B
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$2.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
— / M
Context window
500,000
—
Released
Aug 2026
Aug 2026
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Grok 4.6 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (DeepSWE 1.1), while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 0 benchmarks.

Grok 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Grok 4.6 specifies input context (500,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8-27B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8-27B support multimodal inputs.

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

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8-27B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.8-27B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Grok 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.8-27B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.

Qwen3.8-27B is 0 month newer than Grok 4.6.

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

1 weeks ago

Qwen3.8-27B

Aug 14, 2026

1 weeks ago

2d newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Qwen3.8-27B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3.8-27B's cutoff date.

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

Qwen3.8-27B

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8-27B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3.8-27B.

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok 4.6 is made by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B 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 4.6 compare to Qwen3.8-27B in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. Qwen3.8-27B scores MathVision: 94.6%, OmniDocBench 1.5: 91.1%, LiveCodeBench v6: 90.3%, CharXiv-R: 90.2%, GPQA: 89.2%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K tokens and Qwen3.8-27B 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 4.6 and Qwen3.8-27B?

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

Who makes Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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