XAI VS ALIBABA
Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3 Max
Grok 4.3 is about 1.5x cheaper than Qwen3 Max on a blended 3:1 input:output rate — the same 10K-in/2K-out request costs $0.0175 vs $0.024. Grok 4.3 has the larger context window (1,000,000 vs 252,000 tokens).
Pricing verified
API pricing per 1M tokens
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Blended (3:1 mix) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4.3 | $1.25 | $2.50 | $1.563 |
| Qwen3 Max | $1.20 | $6.00 | $2.40 |
Rates from official xAI pricing and official Alibaba pricing, checked 2026-08-11.
What a real workload costs
Example: one request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens, then that request at 100,000 runs per month.
| Model | Per request (10K in / 2K out) | Per month (100K requests) | Monthly delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4.3 | $0.0175 | $1,750 | — |
| Qwen3 Max | $0.024 | $2,400 | +$650 |
Model your own prompt sizes and volumes in the token cost analyzer, or check caching savings with the prompt caching calculator.
Specs side by side
| Spec | Grok 4.3 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Alibaba |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 252,000 tokens |
| Model class | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Tokenizer | Proprietary (counts estimated) | qwen (exact, public) |
Count tokens for each model on its own page: Grok 4.3 token counter and Qwen3 Max token counter. All xAI models are on the Grok Token Counter. All Alibaba models are on the Qwen Token Counter.
FAQ
Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3 Max FAQ
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 or Qwen3 Max?
Grok 4.3 is cheaper. At rates checked 2026-08-11, Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens, while Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output — about a 1.5x difference on a typical 3:1 input-heavy workload.
How much does a real request cost on Grok 4.3 vs Qwen3 Max?
A request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens costs about $0.0175 on Grok 4.3 and $0.024 on Qwen3 Max. At 100,000 such requests per month that is $1,750 vs $2,400 — a difference of $650 per month.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.3 or Qwen3 Max?
Grok 4.3. It supports 1,000,000 tokens of context versus 252,000 tokens — roughly 750,000 English words in one request.
Do Grok 4.3 and Qwen3 Max count tokens the same way?
Not exactly. Grok 4.3 uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates) and Qwen3 Max uses the published qwen tokenizer. The same prompt will tokenize differently, which shifts effective cost per word.