TUE, OCTOBER 20, 2026
Independent · In‑Depth · Practitioner‑Tested
Large Language Models

Qwen3.8-Max vs Grok 4.5 (2026): Chinese Frontier vs US Closed API

No Published Benchmarks vs Terminal-Bench 83.3% — What You Can Actually Compare

🕐 3 min read 👁 712 views 📅 Aug 3, 2026
MODEL VERSIONS ON THIS PAGE HAVE MOVED — CHECKED 8 OCTOBER 2026

Current line, with published API pricing per million tokens:

● OpenAI — GPT-6 Sol (paid ChatGPT), GPT-6 Luna ($0.10 / $0.50), GPT-6.1 Sol ($2.00 / $10.00), GPT-6 Astra
● Anthropic — Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 ($2.00 / $10.00), Haiku 5.5 ($0.10 / $0.50 below 100K), Fable 5.1
● xAI — Grok 4.3 ($1.25 / $2.50), Grok 4.7 ($2.00 / $6.00)
● Google — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite ($0.30 / $2.50), Gemini 3.8 Flash ($0.75 / $3.75 to 31 Dec), Gemini 4 Argon

The comparison below is kept because the reasoning still holds — how these tiers trade price against capability has not changed. The version numbers and prices have. Current pricing table →

QUICK VERDICT — AUGUST 2026

Grok 4.5 for production: Verified Terminal-Bench 83.3%, confirmed $2/$6/M, Cursor integration, live X data. Validate the 54% hallucination rate (Artificial Analysis) on your tasks before production coding deployment.

Qwen3.8-Max-Preview to test: Run via Token Plan at ~10% of standard pricing for tasks where a larger multimodal model's ceiling matters. No production commitment until benchmark table, pricing, and open weights are published.

Last updated August 3, 2026. Related: Qwen3.8-Max full fact-check → · Grok 4.5 review →

⚖ Our Verdict

Grok 4.5 wins on verifiable evidence today: Terminal-Bench 83.3%, confirmed $2/$6/M, Cursor integration, live X data. Note: the $2/$6/M figure circulating for Qwen3.8-Max on X is actually Grok 4.5's price — not confirmed for Qwen. Validate Grok 4.5's 54% hallucination rate on your tasks. Use Grok 4.5 for production; test Qwen3.8 via Token Plan before committing.