At 1.1" wide, the Glock G43X is the thinnest 9mm Glock carries. The full-height 5.04" grip gives a complete three-finger hold that neither the Sig P365 nor the S&W Shield Plus can match without extended basepads. That grip is why owners who have tried multiple subcompacts consistently rank the G43X as the most natural-pointing gun in the class. The trade-off is 10 rounds versus 12 for the P365 XL and 13 for the Shield Plus.

The 18.7 oz weight and 0.87" slide width make this gun disappear under a T-shirt in ways that 1.3" double-stack subcompacts cannot. The 5.4 lb trigger has a soft initial take-up before a defined wall, which reviewers describe as predictable but not exceptional. The 3.41" barrel produces more muzzle rise than longer-barreled compacts, and the light weight means less mass absorbing recoil. Split times are slower than on a 23 oz gun. That is the math on carrying less weight.

Glock released the G43X in 2019 as a bridge between the too-small G43 and the too-wide G26. The original G43 forced shooters into a two-finger grip; the G26 added grip circumference without grip length. The G43X fixed both problems by stretching the frame vertically while keeping it narrow. It has outsold the G26 since launch, and the aftermarket has followed accordingly.