Qwen3 Max Thinking vs Grok 4.20 vs GLM 5.1

Qwen3 Max Thinking at $0.897 in and $4.49 out, Grok 4.20 at $1.44 in and $2.88 out, and GLM 5.1 at $1.09 in and $3.44 out — per million tokens, from the same wallet.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Qwen

0.81¢

for a client proposal

$0.897 in · $4.49 out / 1M

262K context · released 6 months ago

Full page →

Grok 4.20

xAI

0.95¢

for a client proposal

$1.44 in · $2.88 out / 1M

2M context · released 4 months ago

Full page →

GLM 5.1

Z.ai

0.82¢

for a client proposal

$1.09 in · $3.44 out / 1M

203K context · released 4 months ago

Full page →

Asking all three at once — identical prompt, identical context — costs about 2.6¢ for a typical client proposal.

At a glance

Cheapest input: Qwen3 Max Thinking at $0.897 per million tokens.
Cheapest output: Grok 4.20 at $2.88 per million tokens.
Largest context: Grok 4.20 at 2M tokens — about 2,900 pages.

Cost per task

Estimated totals at the rates above. Solid bar is input, lighter bar is output.

Quick code fix

2K in · 500 out

Qwen3 Max Thinking

0.4¢

Grok 4.20

0.43¢

GLM 5.1

0.39¢

Draft a client proposal from notes

5K in · 800 out

Qwen3 Max Thinking

0.81¢

Grok 4.20

0.95¢

GLM 5.1

0.82¢

Context-heavy session (Alyph workspace)

155K in · 4K out

Qwen3 Max Thinking

$0.39

Grok 4.20

$0.23

GLM 5.1

$0.18

Long-context rate applied at this input size.

Analyze a 50-page legal contract

35K in · 1K out

Qwen3 Max Thinking

$0.07

Grok 4.20

$0.05

GLM 5.1

4.2¢

Long-context rate applied at this input size.

Large architecture refactor

250K in · 3K out

Qwen3 Max Thinking

$0.59

Grok 4.20

$0.74

GLM 5.1

needs 250K ctx

Long-context rate applied at this input size.

Solid part of each bar is input tokens, the lighter part is output. Models that don’t fit a task are marked instead of priced.

Cost vs Token Amount

Drag the slider to adjust the split between input and output workload.

80% Input20% Output

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Grok 4.20

GLM 5.1

Adjust the ratio slider to change how output tokens influence the final price for equivalent workloads.

Pricing

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Grok 4.20

GLM 5.1

Input / 1M tokens

$0.897

$1.44

$1.09

Output / 1M tokens

$4.49

$2.88

$3.44

Cached input / 1M

—

$0.230

$0.203

Web search

—

0.57¢ / search

—

Specs

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Grok 4.20

GLM 5.1

Provider

Qwen

xAI

Z.ai

Released

6 months ago

4 months ago

Context window

262K

203K

Max output

66K

—

131K

Input

Text

Text, Images, and Files

Text

Output

Text

Reasoning

Shows its thinking

Knowledge cutoff

—

2025-09-01

—

Try it with real numbers

2K tokens in · 500 tokens out.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Qwen

0.4¢

for this task

44% input · 56% output

Full pricing →

Grok 4.20

xAI

0.43¢

for this task

67% input · 33% output

Full pricing →

GLM 5.1

Z.ai

0.39¢

for this task

56% input · 44% output

Full pricing →

All 3, same prompt and context: 1.2¢. That is the entire cost of the comparison.

Your $5 welcome credit covers about 407 of these.

Which should you pick?

For long documents, Grok 4.20 has the largest context window here — 2M tokens.

On price, Qwen3 Max Thinking is the cheapest of the three on a typical task, at about 0.81¢.

For images or files, Grok 4.20 can read them directly; Qwen3 Max Thinking and GLM 5.1 are text-only.

Or don’t pick. Send the identical prompt to all three, read the answers side by side, and keep the winner. How to run a fair bake-off →

Qwen3 Max Thinking pricing →Grok 4.20 pricing →GLM 5.1 pricing →Try other combinations →

Questions, answered

Which is cheapest — Qwen3 Max Thinking, Grok 4.20, or GLM 5.1?

On a typical client proposal (5K tokens in, 800 out): Qwen3 Max Thinking at 0.81¢; GLM 5.1 at 0.82¢; Grok 4.20 at 0.95¢. Long prompts can change the order when long-context rates apply.

Which has the largest context window?

Grok 4.20 — 2M tokens, about 2,900 pages.

Can I run Qwen3 Max Thinking, Grok 4.20, and GLM 5.1 side by side on Alyph?

Yes — that is what Alyph is built for: the identical prompt with identical context to all 3, answers rendered side by side, billed from one wallet. This exact combination costs about 2.6¢ for a typical task.

Ask all three at once

Identical prompt, identical context, answers side by side — about 2.6¢ for a typical client proposal. Free to start, with $5 of credit.