Pick Grok 4 for 256k context with native tool use or real-time data via x integration. Pick Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3) or terminal-bench (85.4). Choose Hunyuan Hy4 Preview if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Grok 4 if you want a managed API.
Grok 4 (xAI, US) and Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (Tencent, 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 is xAI's 2M-context model with live data access and strong reasoning chops. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences
Price: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is about 3.6× cheaper on input ($0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens vs $3/$15 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
Context window: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview holds 3.9× more — 1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages) vs 256K (~384 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
Recency: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is the newer model by about 14 months (released August 28, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Ecosystem: this is a US-vs-China matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Specifications
Spec
Grok 4
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Provider
xAI (US)
Tencent (China)
Released
July 9, 2025
August 28, 2026
Context window
256K (~384 pages)
1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)
$3/$15 per 1M tokens
$0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
No — API only
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text, image, code
text
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
256K context with native tool use: Grok 4 — Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is comparatively weak here — text-only, no native vision support
Real-time data via X integration: Grok 4 — Grok 4 lists real-time data via X integration among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.
Strong academic reasoning: Grok 4 — Grok 4 lists strong academic reasoning among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.
GPQA Diamond (92.3): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it runs cheaper at $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens.
Terminal-Bench (85.4): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Grok 4 is comparatively weak here — less independent benchmark coverage
SWE-bench Multilingual (82.9): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it carries the larger 1M+ tokens context.
Lowest cost at scale: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — At $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Largest single-prompt input: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Its 1M+ tokens window is about 3.9× larger than Grok 4's 256K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — At $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens it undercuts Grok 4, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Larger 1M+ tokens window fits more in one prompt.
A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Grok 4 is API-only.
Anyone whose priority is 256k context with native tool use: Grok 4 — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is gpqa diamond (92.3): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules: Grok 4 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Origin (US vs China) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Grok 4: where it fits
XAI's 2M-context model with live data access and strong reasoning chops. Released July 9, 2025 by xAI, it is built for 256K context with native tool use, real-time data via X integration, strong academic reasoning, and no long-context surcharge.
Its trade-offs are real: smaller ecosystem than OpenAI/Google, and less independent benchmark coverage. At $3 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview: where it fits
Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. Released August 28, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for gPQA Diamond (92.3), terminal-Bench (85.4), sWE-bench Multilingual (82.9), and large jump in long-horizon coding vs prior Hunyuan model (DeepSWE 28.0 to 64.3).
Its trade-offs: text-only, no native vision support, labeled a 'preview', not yet Tencent's finalized GA flagship, and sWE-Marathon score still low in absolute terms (31.9) despite a large relative jump. At $0.834 in / $2.501 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. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Grok 4 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.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview 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 leans toward 256k context with native tool use while Hunyuan Hy4 Preview leans toward gpqa diamond (92.3), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Grok 4 is API-metered at $3/$15 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?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — 1M+ tokens vs 256K, about 3.9× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Grok 4 and Hunyuan Hy4 Preview together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Grok 4, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview 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 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — released August 28, 2026, about 14 months after Grok 4.
Grok 4 vs Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
xAI · US | Tencent · China · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Grok 4 for 256k context with native tool use or real-time data via x integration. Pick Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3) or terminal-bench (85.4). Choose Hunyuan Hy4 Preview if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Grok 4 if you want a managed API.
Grok 4 (xAI, US) and Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (Tencent, 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 is xAI's 2M-context model with live data access and strong reasoning chops. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. 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
▸Price: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is about 3.6× cheaper on input ($0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens vs $3/$15 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
▸Context window: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview holds 3.9× more — 1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages) vs 256K (~384 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
▸Recency: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is the newer model by about 14 months (released August 28, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
▸Ecosystem: this is a US-vs-China matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Grok 4
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Provider
xAI (US)
Tencent (China)
Released
July 9, 2025
August 28, 2026
Context window
256K (~384 pages)
1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)
$3/$15 per 1M tokens
$0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
No — API only
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text, image, code
text
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
256K context with native tool use
Grok 4
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is comparatively weak here — text-only, no native vision support
Real-time data via X integration
Grok 4
Grok 4 lists real-time data via X integration among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.
Strong academic reasoning
Grok 4
Grok 4 lists strong academic reasoning among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.
GPQA Diamond (92.3)
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it runs cheaper at $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens.
Terminal-Bench (85.4)
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Grok 4 is comparatively weak here — less independent benchmark coverage
SWE-bench Multilingual (82.9)
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it carries the larger 1M+ tokens context.
Lowest cost at scale
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
At $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Largest single-prompt input
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Its 1M+ tokens window is about 3.9× larger than Grok 4's 256K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
At $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens it undercuts Grok 4, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Larger 1M+ tokens window fits more in one prompt.
A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs
→ Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Grok 4 is API-only.
Anyone whose priority is 256k context with native tool use
→ Grok 4
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is gpqa diamond (92.3)
→ Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules
→ Grok 4 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Origin (US vs China) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Grok 4: where it fits
XAI's 2M-context model with live data access and strong reasoning chops. Released July 9, 2025 by xAI, it is built for 256K context with native tool use, real-time data via X integration, strong academic reasoning, and no long-context surcharge.
Its trade-offs are real: smaller ecosystem than OpenAI/Google, and less independent benchmark coverage. At $3 in / $15 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview: where it fits
Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. Released August 28, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for gPQA Diamond (92.3), terminal-Bench (85.4), sWE-bench Multilingual (82.9), and large jump in long-horizon coding vs prior Hunyuan model (DeepSWE 28.0 to 64.3).
Its trade-offs: text-only, no native vision support, labeled a 'preview', not yet Tencent's finalized GA flagship, and sWE-Marathon score still low in absolute terms (31.9) despite a large relative jump. At $0.834 in / $2.501 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. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Grok 4 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 and Hunyuan Hy4 Preview 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.
Is Grok 4 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview 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 leans toward 256k context with native tool use while Hunyuan Hy4 Preview leans toward gpqa diamond (92.3), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Grok 4 is API-metered at $3/$15 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?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — 1M+ tokens vs 256K, about 3.9× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Grok 4 and Hunyuan Hy4 Preview together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Grok 4, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview 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 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — released August 28, 2026, about 14 months after Grok 4.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.