Grok 4.20 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Grok 4.20 leads Qwen3.5 397B A17B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.7 to 21.4, at about the same output price ($2.50 vs $2.34 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 17 benchmarks have a result for both.
Grok 4.20 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B: which to pick
Only Grok 4.20 has a coding score, 33.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.5 397B A17B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($2.34 vs $2.50 per million) and work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or τ²-Bench Telecom, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 17
- Grok 4.20 only
- 38
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B only
- 48
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Grok 4.20 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 25.7 against 21.4.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Grok 4.20 has a GPQA Diamond result, 88.6%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Grok 4.20 has a AIME result, 96.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Grok 4.20 has a MMLU Pro result, 86.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 1229 against 1190.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 takes 2M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Grok 4.20 $0.0025, Qwen3.5 397B A17B $0.0016 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Grok 4.20 has the number, $0.72.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Grok 4.20 33.3 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.5 397B A17B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 5.5 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Grok 4.20 69.0% against Qwen3.5 397B A17B 77.3%, 8.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Grok 4.20 $2.50 against Qwen3.5 397B A17B $2.34 per million output tokens, 1.1x apart.
- Context window
- Grok 4.20 takes 2M tokens, Qwen3.5 397B A17B 262K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Grok 4.20 | Bars | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 7 | 0 | ||
| General | 3 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 14 | 3 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1400 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 84.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 72.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 4.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 0.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 44.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 44.8% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 37.9% | 40.9% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Terminal-Bench | 57.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| WeirdML | 52.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 621.9 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1464 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1463 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1388 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1410 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 25.7 | 21.4 | Grok 4.20 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 152.1 | 146.8 | Grok 4.20 |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1144 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1054 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1090 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1045 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1089 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1180 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 28.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 7.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 13.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 11.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 93.0% | 95.6% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 24.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $4,663 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 91.1% | 89.3% | Grok 4.20 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 34.5% | 29.0% | Grok 4.20 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 86.4% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| ARC-AGI | 89.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 65.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 18.0% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1450 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1277 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1292 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 96.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 31.2% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1453 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 77.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 54.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 63.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 74.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 45.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 94.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 32.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1457 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1455 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1435 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1229 | 1190 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1200 | 1160 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1193 | 1140 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1217 | 1175 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1193 | 1160 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1221 | 1179 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1165 | 1139 | Grok 4.20 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1175 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 38.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 39.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| IFBench | 81.2% | 78.8% | Grok 4.20 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 69.0% | 77.3% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| DTBench | 90.1% | 87.5% | Grok 4.20 |
| LMCA | 38.7% | 37.9% | Grok 4.20 |
| CL-bench | 22.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 11.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.20 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1437 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1424 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1402 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1443 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1498 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1384 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1447 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1446 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1415 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1399 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1268 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1314 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1271 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1230 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1265 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1260 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | SpaceXAI Grok 4.20 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | xAI | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | March 31, 2026 | February 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 2M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.25 | $0.39 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $2.34 |
| Coding index | 33.3 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.72 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Grok 4.20 better than Qwen3.5 397B A17B for coding?
Only Grok 4.20 has a coding score, 33.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.5 397B A17B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($2.34 vs $2.50 per million) and work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or τ²-Bench Telecom, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Grok 4.20 costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.39 and $2.34. Cost per solved task is known for Grok 4.20 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.20 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Grok 4.20, with 2M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Grok 4.20 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B comparison based on?
17 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Grok 4.20's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.5 397B A17B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.