Grok Code Fast 1 vs Qwen3-Max
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
Grok Code Fast 1
xAI · Aug 2025
A speed-first coding model built for agentic IDE loops, popular as a cheap fast tier in Cursor and similar tools.
Qwen3-Max
80.5Alibaba (Qwen) · Sep 2025
Alibaba's trillion-parameter API flagship — frontier-adjacent quality with strong agentic tool use at mid-tier prices.
The verdict
Grok Code Fast 1 wins 1 of the 1 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for Qwen3-Max. On price the gap is dramatic: Grok Code Fast 1 works out roughly 4.6x cheaper per blended million tokens. Qwen3-Max also takes 262K of context versus 256K for Grok Code Fast 1.
Benchmark head-to-head 1–0
Specs & pricing
| Grok Code Fast 1 | Qwen3-Max | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | — | 80.5 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.2 | $1.2 |
| Output price / 1M | $1.5 | $6 |
| Context window | 256K | 262K |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Open weights | no | no |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 2025 | Jun 2025 |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Sep 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $4.25 | $21.00 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, Grok Code Fast 1 or Qwen3-Max?
- Grok Code Fast 1 wins 1 of the 1 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for Qwen3-Max. On price the gap is dramatic: Grok Code Fast 1 works out roughly 4.6x cheaper per blended million tokens. Qwen3-Max also takes 262K of context versus 256K for Grok Code Fast 1.
- Which is cheaper, Grok Code Fast 1 or Qwen3-Max?
- Grok Code Fast 1 costs $0.2/$1.5 per million input/output tokens, while Qwen3-Max costs $1.2/$6. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $4.25 versus $21.00.
- Which model is better for coding, Grok Code Fast 1 or Qwen3-Max?
- On SWE-bench Verified — the standard agentic-coding benchmark — Grok Code Fast 1 scores 70.8% versus 69.6% for Qwen3-Max, making Grok Code Fast 1 the stronger pick for coding agents.