Model comparison

Grok 4.5 vs Qwen3.5 27B

Grok 4.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 55.0 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5 27B costs 3.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 25 shared benchmarks.

Grok 4.5 xAI

55.0

Rank #22 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 27B Alibaba (Qwen)

41.4

Rank #127 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 25 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3.5 27B in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.5 leads 56.0 to 26.6.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 79.9% for Grok 4.5 and 47.9% for Qwen3.5 27B.
  • Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.40 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.5.
  • Grok 4.5 accepts more context: 500K tokens versus 262K.
  • Qwen3.5 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.5 27B specifications
Grok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
ProviderxAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index55.041.4
Released2026-07-082026-02-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window500K262K
Max output500K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$6$2.40
Results tracked5228

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 51.7 (#34), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.6 (#159)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena WebDev15521357
WeirdML46.4%39.5%
LMArena Coding14731427
ALE-Bench1,309349.45
DeepSWE53.8%—
FrontierCode42.4%—
SciCode54.1%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Grok 4.5: 44.4 (#15), Qwen3.5 27B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
Vending-Bench 23,887201.98
APEX-Agents56.2%—
τ²-bench Banking47.9%—
PostTrainBench23.4%—
GBAEval65.4%—
GDP.pdf14%—
LMArena Search1213—

Reasoning Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 56.0 (#23), Qwen3.5 27B: 26.6 (#116)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
NYT Connections (extended)79.9%47.9%
LMArena Hard Prompts14621414
DTBench96.5%82.4%
LMCA45.2%34%
ARC-AGI-252.6%—
SimpleBench70%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark83.5%—
ARC-AGI-187.2%—
CritPt15.4%—
Chess Puzzles36%—
Thematic Generalization—45.5%
Surface Evolver Bench74.4%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.02—

Math Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 60.7 (#29), Qwen3.5 27B: 36.8 (#103)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Math14571428
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)57.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 424.4%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—56.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202597.8%—
ProofBench31%—

Knowledge Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 62.3 (#21), Qwen3.5 27B: 37.4 (#149)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Expert14661428
GPQA Diamond93.4%—
SimpleQA Verified48.3%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—12.1%

Multimodal Too close to call

Grok 4.5: 37.8 (#63), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.7 (#56)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Vision12871240
Blueprint-Bench 227.3%—
Furniture Assembly22.5%—
LMArena Document1452—

Multilingual Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 54.5 (#43), Qwen3.5 27B: 51.0 (#112)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Non-English14391390
LMArena Chinese14971478
LMArena French14581409
LMArena German14481393
LMArena Japanese14251345
LMArena Korean14021359
LMArena Russian14471389
LMArena Spanish14521408

Instruction Following Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 76.3 (#45), Qwen3.5 27B: 73.7 (#114)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Instruction Following14461393

Long Context Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 44.8 (#54), Qwen3.5 27B: 43.1 (#103)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Longer Query14631413

Writing & Preference Grok 4.5 leads

Grok 4.5: 65.9 (#40), Qwen3.5 27B: 59.5 (#106)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Text14481409
LMArena Creative Writing14421362
LMArena Multi-Turn14571410
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1579—

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.5 better than Qwen3.5 27B?

Grok 4.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 55.0 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5 27B costs 3.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.5 or Qwen3.5 27B?

Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Grok 4.5 lists at $2 and $6.

Is Grok 4.5 or Qwen3.5 27B better for coding?

Grok 4.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.7 versus 38.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.5 does, with 500K tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Grok 4.5 and Qwen3.5 27B share?

25 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.5 has 52 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 27B has 28.

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