Grok 4.7 vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

xAI · US  |  Alibaba · China · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick Grok 4.7 for 2.1 trillion parameters, up 40% from grok 4.6's 1.5 trillion, at the same $2/$6 per million token price or deepswe v1.1 (high effort): 71.0%, up from grok 4.6's 65.2%; cursorbench 4.0: 46.3%, up from 40.4%. Pick Qwen3.8-Flash-Next for swe-bench pro (62.5, ahead of claude opus 4.6 max's 53.4) or cost efficiency: ~1/9th the training cost of qwen3.7-plus, ~12x cheaper api than flagship qwen3.8-max. Choose Qwen3.8-Flash-Next if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Grok 4.7 if you want a managed API.

Grok 4.7 (xAI, US) and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next (Alibaba, China) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Grok 4.7 is xAI's September 21, 2026 update — a 2.1T-parameter model trained partly on SpaceX hardware data, same price as Grok 4.6 but stronger on coding benchmarks. Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is alibaba's open-weight preview of its next-generation Qwen4 hybrid-attention architecture, released August 26, 2026 as a 125B-parameter (6B active) MoE model priced roughly 12x below its own flagship Qwen3.8-Max. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecGrok 4.7Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
ProviderxAI (US) Alibaba (China)
ReleasedSeptember 21, 2026 August 26, 2026
Context window500K tokens (~750 pages) 262K tokens natively (extensible to 1M with YaRN) (~393 pages)
Price (in/out)$2/$6 per 1M tokens $0.16/$0.47 per 1M tokens
Open weight?No — API only Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, image, code text, image, video
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

2.1 trillion parameters, up 40% from Grok 4.6's 1.5 trillion, at the same $2/$6 per million token price

Grok 4.7

Its 500K tokens window holds about 1.9× more than Qwen3.8-Flash-Next's 262K tokens natively (extensible to 1M with YaRN) in a single prompt.

DeepSWE v1.1 (high effort): 71.0%, up from Grok 4.6's 65.2%; CursorBench 4.0: 46.3%, up from 40.4%

Grok 4.7

XAI's September 21, 2026 update — a 2.1T-parameter model trained partly on SpaceX hardware data, same price as Grok 4.6 but stronger on coding benchmarks — and it carries the larger 500K tokens context.

Trained with supplemental SpaceX data (Starlink telemetry, manufacturing records, engineering failure logs) — xAI says this improves reasoning about hardware and physical systems

Grok 4.7

XAI's September 21, 2026 update — a 2.1T-parameter model trained partly on SpaceX hardware data, same price as Grok 4.6 but stronger on coding benchmarks — and it is the newer of the two.

SWE-bench Pro (62.5, ahead of Claude Opus 4.6 Max's 53.4)

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

Grok 4.7 is comparatively weak here — reviewers note it arrives "late to the AI frontier party" against GPT-6 Astra, Claude Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5, all shipped in the weeks just before it

Cost efficiency: ~1/9th the training cost of Qwen3.7-Plus, ~12x cheaper API than flagship Qwen3.8-Max

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

At $0.16/$0.47 per 1M tokens it undercuts Grok 4.7 ($2/$6 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.

Vision-based agentic tasks (AndroidWorld: 84.5)

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

Alibaba's open-weight preview of its next-generation Qwen4 hybrid-attention architecture, released August 26, 2026 as a 125B-parameter (6B active) MoE model priced roughly 12x below its own flagship Qwen3.8-Max — and it runs cheaper at $0.16/$0.47 per 1M tokens.

Lowest cost at scale

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

At $0.16/$0.47 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.

Largest single-prompt input

Grok 4.7

Its 500K tokens window is about 1.9× larger than Qwen3.8-Flash-Next's 262K tokens natively (extensible to 1M with YaRN), fitting roughly 750 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

At $0.16/$0.47 per 1M tokens it undercuts Grok 4.7, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

Grok 4.7

Larger 500K tokens window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Grok 4.7 is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is 2.1 trillion parameters, up 40% from grok 4.6's 1.5 trillion, at the same $2/$6 per million token price

Grok 4.7

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is swe-bench pro (62.5, ahead of claude opus 4.6 max's 53.4)

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

Grok 4.7 or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

Origin (US vs China) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.

Grok 4.7: where it fits

XAI's September 21, 2026 update — a 2.1T-parameter model trained partly on SpaceX hardware data, same price as Grok 4.6 but stronger on coding benchmarks. Released September 21, 2026 by xAI, it is built for 2.1 trillion parameters, up 40% from Grok 4.6's 1.5 trillion, at the same $2/$6 per million token price, deepSWE v1.1 (high effort): 71.0%, up from Grok 4.6's 65.2%; CursorBench 4.0: 46.3%, up from 40.4%, trained with supplemental SpaceX data (Starlink telemetry, manufacturing records, engineering failure logs) — xAI says this improves reasoning about hardware and physical systems, and xAI's strongest safety guardrails to date, per the company.

Its trade-offs are real: release was delayed at least five times since late July 2026 before shipping, 500K context window trails several rivals now sitting at 1M+, and reviewers note it arrives "late to the AI frontier party" against GPT-6 Astra, Claude Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5, all shipped in the weeks just before it. At $2 in / $6 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: where it fits

Alibaba's open-weight preview of its next-generation Qwen4 hybrid-attention architecture, released August 26, 2026 as a 125B-parameter (6B active) MoE model priced roughly 12x below its own flagship Qwen3.8-Max. Released August 26, 2026 by Alibaba, it is built for sWE-bench Pro (62.5, ahead of Claude Opus 4.6 Max's 53.4), cost efficiency: ~1/9th the training cost of Qwen3.7-Plus, ~12x cheaper API than flagship Qwen3.8-Max, vision-based agentic tasks (AndroidWorld: 84.5), and previews Qwen4's hybrid gated-DeltaNet plus sparse-attention architecture.

Its trade-offs: trails Claude Opus 4.6 Max on Humanity's Last Exam (35.9 vs 40.0), lower OSWorld 2.0 binary success rate (19.4%), and an open-weight architecture preview rather than Alibaba's polished flagship product. At $0.16 in / $0.47 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. Qwen3.8-Flash-Next gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Grok 4.7 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both Grok 4.7 and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is Grok 4.7 or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Grok 4.7 leans toward 2.1 trillion parameters, up 40% from grok 4.6's 1.5 trillion, at the same $2/$6 per million token price while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next leans toward swe-bench pro (62.5, ahead of claude opus 4.6 max's 53.4), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.7 or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next?

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Grok 4.7 is API-metered at $2/$6 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.7 — 500K tokens vs 262K tokens natively (extensible to 1M with YaRN), about 1.9× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both Grok 4.7 and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Grok 4.7, Qwen3.8-Flash-Next and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, Grok 4.7 or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next?

Grok 4.7 — released September 21, 2026, about 26 days after Qwen3.8-Flash-Next.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.