Model comparison

Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.6 xAI

56.9

Rank #21 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.6 scores higher in 9 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.6 leads 61.4 to 25.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 67.3% for Grok 4.6 and 41.2% for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
  • Both cost about the same: $2 input and $6 output per million tokens.
  • Grok 4.6 accepts more context: 500K tokens versus 262K.
  • Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok 4.6 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct specifications
Grok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
ProviderxAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index56.938.1
Released2026-08-122025-04
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window500K262K
Max output500K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2$1.50
Output $ / M tokens$6$7.50
Results tracked4925

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 58.5 (#16), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 35.5 (#223)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena WebDev16171275
WeirdML67.3%41.2%
LMArena Coding14651412
ALE-Bench1,508461.45
DeepSWE67.5%—
FrontierCode48%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—55.4%
CursorBench41.4%—
FrontierSWE25.3%—
SciCode56.5%—
GSO—4.9%
AlgoTune—1.44

Agentic & Tool Use Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#27), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.9 (#123)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Terminal-Bench—27.2%
APEX-Agents65.3%—
GDP.pdf17.2%—
Vending-Bench 29,047—

Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 61.4 (#20), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 25.5 (#149)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14471372
ARC-AGI-267.1%—
SimpleBench75.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—49.5%
NYT Connections (extended)80%—
ARC-AGI-187.5%—
CritPt19.7%—
Chess Puzzles40%—
EBR-Bench30.5%—
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.3%—
LMCA48.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index156.44—

Math Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 67.0 (#24), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.6 (#150)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Math14231365
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)66%—
FrontierMath Tier 431.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202599.2%—
ProofBench51%—

Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#20), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.0 (#162)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Expert14671338
GPQA Diamond94%—
SimpleQA Verified49.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Grok 4.6: 43.6 (#23), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Vision1263—
Blueprint-Bench 233.2%—
Furniture Assembly40%—
LMArena Document1452—

Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 53.0 (#74), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.7 (#148)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Non-English14201346
LMArena Chinese14801357
LMArena French14611398
LMArena German14311325
LMArena Japanese13761310
LMArena Korean13971305
LMArena Russian14221366
LMArena Spanish14041360

Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 75.4 (#63), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.6 (#147)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14311355

Long Context Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 44.5 (#66), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#131)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14541378

Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads

Grok 4.6: 62.3 (#80), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.3 (#147)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.6Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Text14281357
LMArena Creative Writing14281333
LMArena Multi-Turn14251365

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.6 better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.9 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens; Grok 4.6 lists at $2 and $6.

Is Grok 4.6 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.5 versus 35.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.6 does, with 500K tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.6 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.6 has 49 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.

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