Comparison · Qwen and xAI
Qwen3.8 Max Prime vs Grok 4.5
Listed API prices of Qwen3.8 Max Prime and Grok 4.5 turned into the cost of the same three standard tasks and what each provider’s API documentation says about features that break on a switch. Output quality, speed and answer length are not compared.
Calculated impact cost per task and per month
For an L2 task (deep analysis over a 50,000-token document, 3 steps), Qwen3.8 Max Prime costs $0.672 and Grok 4.5 $0.336 at the prices listed in the United States on , so Qwen3.8 Max Prime is 100.0 % more than Grok 4.5, counting visible output only, without cache discounts or hidden reasoning.
| Task | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, per task | Grok 4.5, per task | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, per month | Grok 4.5, per month | Qwen3.8 Max Prime vs Grok 4.5, per task |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L1Micro-task (classification or strict JSON extraction) | $0.0084per L1 task | $0.0042per L1 task | $122.64per month | $61.32per month | +100.0 % |
| L2Deep analysis over a 50,000-token document | $0.672per L2 task | $0.336per L2 task | $9,811.20per month | $4,905.60per month | +100.0 % |
| L3Agentic coding loop, 15 steps | $5.37per L3 task | $2.69per L3 task | $78,402.00per month | $39,201.00per month | +100.0 % |
Calculated Per month: 20 tasks an hour around the clock, 730 hours.
Prices USD per 1M tokens
| Price | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $4.00 | $2.00 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $12.00 | $6.00 |
| Price from | OpenRouter · source page (data) Published | OpenRouter · source page (data) Published |
| Read | · the United States | · the United States |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 500,000 tokens |
What breaks when you switch Published provider documentation
Moving from Qwen to xAI: every feature that Qwen’s documentation lists as supported is also listed as supported by xAI.
Moving from xAI to Qwen, 1 of the 5 features may not carry over, by each provider’s documentation:
- Strict JSON schemas — xAI: yes; Qwen: partly. Code that parses answers without checks starts failing where a provider promises only valid JSON, not your schema.
| Feature of the API | Qwen | xAI |
|---|---|---|
| Strict JSON schemas | Partly | Yes |
| Parallel tool calls | Yes | Yes |
| Streamed tool arguments | Not stated | No |
| Reasoning with tools | Yes | Yes |
| Cache covers tool definitions | Not stated | Not stated |
What each provider’s own API documentation says, read ; “not stated” is not the same as “no”. Quotes and sources: what breaks when you switch AI APIs.