Grok 4 Heavy vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Grok 4 Heavy (2025) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (2026) are general-purpose language models from xAI and Alibaba. Grok 4 Heavy ships a 256k-token context window, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ships a 262K-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing. The goal is to make the tradeoff clear before deeper testing.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is safer overall; choose Grok 4 Heavy when provider fit matters.
Specs
| Released | 2025-07-09 | 2026-02-16 |
| Context window | 256k | 262K |
| Parameters | — | 397B |
| Architecture | - | MoE |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Grok 4 Heavy | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | $0.39/1M tokens |
| Output price | - | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Providers | - |
Capabilities
| Grok 4 Heavy | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Multimodal | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Function calling | ||
| Tool use | ||
| Structured outputs | ||
| Code execution |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on structured outputs: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B. Both models share multimodal input, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
Pricing coverage is uneven: Grok 4 Heavy has no token price sourced yet and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has $0.39/1M input tokens. Provider availability is 0 tracked routes versus 1. Treat unknown pricing as an integration gap, then verify the route you will actually call before estimating production spend.
Choose Grok 4 Heavy when provider fit are central to the workload. Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B when long-context analysis, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions. It also helps separate model capability from provider packaging, which can change cost and latency. For teams standardizing a stack, that distinction is often the difference between a benchmark win and a reliable deployment.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Grok 4 Heavy or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B supports 262K tokens, while Grok 4 Heavy supports 256k tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Is Grok 4 Heavy or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B open source?
Grok 4 Heavy is listed under Proprietary. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is listed under Apache 2.0. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for multimodal input, Grok 4 Heavy or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Both Grok 4 Heavy and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Which is better for structured outputs, Grok 4 Heavy or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has the clearer documented structured outputs signal in this comparison. If structured outputs is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Grok 4 Heavy and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Grok 4 Heavy is available on the tracked providers still being sourced. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available on OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
When should I pick Grok 4 Heavy over Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is safer overall; choose Grok 4 Heavy when provider fit matters. If your workload also depends on provider fit, start with Grok 4 Heavy; if it depends on long-context analysis, run the same evaluation with Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.