Model comparison
Grok 4.1 Fast vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. Grok 4.1 Fast costs 4.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.1 Fast scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.6 Plus in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 56.1 to 33.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 87.4% for Grok 4.1 Fast and 60.3% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Grok 4.1 Fast is cheaper at $0.20 / $0.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen3.6 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.4 | 47.5 |
| Released | 2025-06-27 | 2026-03-31 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 128K | 1M |
| Max output | 30K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.20 | $0.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $3 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 37 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 34.1 (#245), Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1242 | 1461 |
| LMArena Coding | 1411 | 1467 |
| ALE-Bench | 394.93 | 670.15 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 57.9% |
| SciCode | — | 40.7% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Grok 4.1 Fast: 36.3 (#39), Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 1,107 | 5,115 |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 69.6% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 13.1% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1171 | — |
Reasoning Grok 4.1 Fast leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 43.4 (#49), Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.4% | 60.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1449 |
| DTBench | 87.7% | 81.9% |
| SimpleBench | 56% | — |
| CritPt | — | 2.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 17% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 12% |
| LMCA | — | 33.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 147.65 |
| ForecastBench | 61 | — |
Math Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 31.9 (#221), Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1408 | 1450 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 38.2% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 60.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 93.3% |
| ProofBench | 4% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 8.3% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 33.1 (#207), Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1399 | 1454 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 88.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 44.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 17.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Grok 4.1 Fast: 37.0 (#76), Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1201 | — |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 51.0 (#114), Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1391 | 1424 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1441 | 1477 |
| LMArena French | 1415 | 1455 |
| LMArena German | 1404 | 1452 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1349 | 1389 |
| LMArena Korean | 1361 | 1379 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1434 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1413 | 1432 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 72.7 (#133), Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1376 | 1425 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 42.4 (#126), Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1390 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Grok 4.1 Fast: 57.2 (#131), Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1408 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1394 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1389 | 1438 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1327 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4.1 Fast better than Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. Grok 4.1 Fast costs 4.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.1 Fast or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Grok 4.1 Fast is cheaper. It lists at $0.20 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus lists at $0.50 and $3.
Is Grok 4.1 Fast or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 34.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Grok 4.1 Fast and Qwen3.6 Plus share?
22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.1 Fast has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.