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

Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)vsQwen3 Max (Preview)

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

xAI

Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
64 tok/s
TTFT
0.65s
Alibaba

Qwen3 Max (Preview)

Input
$1.2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
48 tok/s
TTFT
1.72s

Winner by Category

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

Pricing Comparison

MetricGrok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)Qwen3 Max (Preview)
Input ($/M tokens)$2$1.2
Output ($/M tokens)$6$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)$2.60
Qwen3 Max (Preview)$1.80

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)
64 tok/s
Qwen3 Max (Preview)
48 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)
0.65s
Qwen3 Max (Preview)
1.72s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
29.726.1
Coding Index
25.425.5
Math Index
75.0
GPQA Diamond
78.5%76.4%
MMLU-Pro
83.8%
LiveCodeBench
65.1%
AIME 2025
75.0%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
22.5%9.3%
SciCode
32.2%37.0%
IFBench
47.8%48.0%
TerminalBench
22.0%19.7%
Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning)4 wins
7 winsQwen3 Max (Preview)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning) or Qwen3 Max (Preview)?

Qwen3 Max (Preview) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $2.40/M tokens vs $3.00/M for Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

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

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 64 tok/s vs 48 tok/s. Grok 4.20 0309 (Non-reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.65s vs 1.72s).

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

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