Grok 4 Pro vs Qwen3-Max Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Grok 4 Pro and Qwen3-Max Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Qwen3-Max Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3-Max Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Grok 4 Pro
Grok 4 Pro is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $19.00 per million input tokens and $77.72 per million output tokens, and averages 85.4 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.00 / 1M
- Output
- $77.72 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 85.4
- Open weights
- No
Qwen3-Max Max
Qwen3-Max Max is a frontier model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $18.53 per million input tokens and $74.05 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $18.53 / 1M
- Output
- $74.05 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Grok 4 Pro | Qwen3-Max Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $19.00 | $18.53 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $77.72 | $74.05 | B |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | A |
| Max output | 128,000 | 65,536 | A |
| Average score | 85.4 | 85.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1487.5 | 1467.7 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Grok 4 Pro wins 5, Qwen3-Max Max wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Grok 4 Pro | Qwen3-Max Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 84.9 | 85.2 | 0.3 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 79.2 | 83.8 | 4.6 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.7 | 74.3 | 0.4 | Grok 4 Pro |
| HumanEval | 89.7 | 90.2 | 0.5 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| MATH-500 | 92.3 | 92.8 | 0.5 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| AIME 2025 | 85.4 | 82.7 | 2.7 | Grok 4 Pro |
| LiveCodeBench | 77.8 | 82.8 | 5.0 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| IFEval | 91.3 | 93.7 | 2.4 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| TruthfulQA | 86.0 | 89.3 | 3.3 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.8 | 91.4 | 1.4 | Grok 4 Pro |
| MMMU | 84.9 | 78.9 | 6.0 | Grok 4 Pro |
| Arena Elo | 1487.5 | 1467.7 | 19.8 | Grok 4 Pro |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Grok 4 Pro costs about $33.68 per million tokens and Qwen3-Max Max costs about $32.41. Qwen3-Max Max is roughly 4% cheaper than Grok 4 Pro. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 4 Pro has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 400,000 for Qwen3-Max Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Grok 4 Pro wins 5, Qwen3-Max Max wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Qwen3-Max Max leads Grok 4 Pro by 0.5 points (85.9 versus 85.4).
The price picture favours Qwen3-Max Max. The context picture favours Grok 4 Pro. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3-Max Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Grok 4 Pro if
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
Choose Qwen3-Max Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
FAQ
Is Grok 4 Pro better than Qwen3-Max Max?
On the index average, Qwen3-Max Max leads Grok 4 Pro by 0.5 points (85.9 versus 85.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Grok 4 Pro wins 5 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Max wins 7.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4 Pro or Qwen3-Max Max?
Qwen3-Max Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $32.41 per million tokens, versus $33.68 for Grok 4 Pro.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 4 Pro has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Qwen3-Max Max has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Grok 4 Pro is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3-Max Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.