Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
Updated October 21, 2026. 42 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
vs boards won of 42 shared
Decision reading
Pick Grok 4.6 for coding: it scores 76.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 50.0 for Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B.
Pick Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B when output tokens cost 6.0x less.
Model AGrok 4.6xAI76.4/1002 independent benchmarks$0.82 per solved taskModel BQwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwen50.0/1002 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 42
- Grok 4.6 only
- 81
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B only
- 10
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
Grok 4.6
Grok 4.6 scores 76.4 against 50.0.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Grok 4.6
Grok 4.6 leads, 44.3 against 11.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Grok 4.6 has a AA Agentic Index result, 53.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Grok 4.6 has a GPQA Diamond result, 94.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Grok 4.6 has a MMLU Pro result, 89.4%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Grok 4.6
Grok 4.6 leads, 1289 against 1159.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Grok 4.6
Grok 4.6 takes 500K tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
Grok 4.6 $0.0050, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Grok 4.6 has the number, $0.82.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Grok 4.6 76.4 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 50.0 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 34.0 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: React: Grok 4.6 1631 against Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 1257, 57.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Grok 4.6 $6.00 against Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $1.00 per million output tokens, 6.0x apart.
- Context window
- Grok 4.6 takes 500K tokens, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 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 4.6 | Bars | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 5 | 0 | ||
| General | 18 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 42 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index70
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 69.6% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LiveBench coding | 89.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1617 | 1275 | Grok 4.6 |
| AA Coding Index | 76.8 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 88.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 17.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 76.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 44.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 1.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 47.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 78.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 14.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 67.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| SciCode | 56.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 18.9% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 27.2% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| FrontierCode | 48.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 25.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| WeirdML | 67.3% | 41.2% | Grok 4.6 |
| ALE-Bench | 1508.1 | 461.4 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1466 | 1412 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1457 | 1393 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1631 | 1257 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1597 | 1287 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1603 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 44.3 | 11.9 | Grok 4.6 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 156.6 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index23 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 53.0 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1247 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1264 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1234 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1297 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1276 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1208 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1249 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1241 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench research | 84.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 64.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 40.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 53.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 33.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 62.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 72.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 11.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Vals Science Index | 38.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 5.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 43.6% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| APEX-Agents | 65.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $9,047 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 91.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 30.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 94.9% | 61.8% | Grok 4.6 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 44.1% | 4.5% | Grok 4.6 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 94.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 87.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 67.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| SimpleBench | 75.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 33.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 34.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| EBR-bench | 30.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1448 | 1372 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1469 | 1338 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1445 | 1380 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1285 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1283 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 39.3 | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 39.3% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 99.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 66.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 31.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| ProofBench | 51.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1417 | 1365 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1464 | 1367 | Grok 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 89.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 64.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 44.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 78.8% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 49.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1437 | 1347 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1420 | 1347 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1429 | 1358 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1416 | 1343 | Grok 4.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1289 | 1159 | Grok 4.6 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1294 | 1112 | Grok 4.6 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1296 | 1099 | Grok 4.6 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1283 | 1084 | Grok 4.6 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1277 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1292 | 1143 | Grok 4.6 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1239 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1278 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LiveBench design | 79.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index180
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 75.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 66.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 28.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 86.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 40.5% | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 81.0% | 45.7% | Grok 4.6 |
| DTBench | 97.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMCA | 48.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 40.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1429 | 1357 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1431 | 1355 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1426 | 1333 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision | 1263 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1433 | 1359 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1420 | 1346 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1476 | 1357 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1426 | 1325 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1378 | 1311 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1391 | 1305 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1455 | 1398 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1414 | 1360 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1421 | 1366 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1430 | 1344 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1425 | 1366 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1456 | 1378 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1429 | 1340 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1421 | 1317 | Grok 4.6 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1270 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1289 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1272 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1270 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1262 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1452 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | 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
Grok 4.6$0.0050Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B$0.0008Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Grok 4.6$0.118Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B$0.018Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Grok 4.6$0.460Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B$0.070Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 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 4.6 | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | xAI | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | August 12, 2026 | July 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 500K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $6.00 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 76.4 | 50.0 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.82 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Grok 4.6 better than Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B for coding?
Pick Grok 4.6 for coding: it scores 76.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 50.0 for Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B. Pick Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B when output tokens cost 6.0x less.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B?
Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs $0.30 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for Grok 4.6 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.6 or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B?
Grok 4.6, with 500K tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Grok 4.6 vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B comparison based on?
42 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Grok 4.6's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.