Grok 4.6 Xhigh vs Qwen3.8 Max 0902 compared

Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) are close rivals from SpaceXAI and Alibaba. No hands-on testing went into this write-up; it summarises the recorded benchmark, price and speed data for both models. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 starts answering far sooner, with a time to first token of 3.2 seconds compared with 47 seconds for Grok 4.6 Xhigh.

How fast they respond

Measured output speed is 62 tokens per second for Grok 4.6 Xhigh and 38 tokens per second for Qwen3.8 Max 0902. On outputs beyond about 4,400 tokens, that is a real advantage for Grok 4.6 Xhigh. The wait for the first token averages 47 seconds on Grok 4.6 Xhigh against 3.2 seconds on Qwen3.8 Max 0902. That is a genuine trade-off: Qwen3.8 Max 0902 starts sooner, while Grok 4.6 Xhigh finishes first once outputs run beyond about 4,400 tokens. Waits that long are felt on every chat-style request, though they matter less for batch jobs.

For a 1,500-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 71 seconds on Grok 4.6 Xhigh and 42 seconds on Qwen3.8 Max 0902.

Benchmark scores

The catalogue puts Grok 4.6 Xhigh at 31.0 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 at 33.7 on its intelligence index. The lead is visible but narrow, so it should not decide the choice on its own.

Across the 109 active models with an intelligence score in the catalogue, Grok 4.6 Xhigh ranks 49th and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 ranks 44th.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

When they came out

Grok 4.6 Xhigh came first, on August 12, 2026; Qwen3.8 Max 0902 followed on September 2, 2026. That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

What they cost

Grok 4.6 Xhigh lists $2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max 0902 lists $2.00 and $6.00. With matching rates, cost drops out of the decision.

Value for money

A blunt value measure, blended price over intelligence score, puts Grok 4.6 Xhigh at $0.097 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 at $0.089 per point. On that measure they are priced in proportion to their scores.