Compare/Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)vsQwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

xAI

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
189 tok/s
TTFT
0.31s
Alibaba

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.5/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
151 tok/s
TTFT
1.01s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
Benchmarks (5-6)
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$2$0.5
Output ($/M tokens)$6$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)$2.60
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)$1.10

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
189 tok/s
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
151 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
0.31s
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
1.01s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
29.726.7
Coding Index
25.419.5
Math Index
84.3
GPQA Diamond
78.5%75.9%
MMLU-Pro
82.4%
LiveCodeBench
78.4%
AIME 2025
84.3%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
22.5%11.7%
SciCode
32.2%38.8%
IFBench
47.8%60.7%
TerminalBench
22.0%9.8%
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)5 wins
6 winsQwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)?

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $1.88/M tokens vs $3.00/M for Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) wins 6 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 189 tok/s vs 151 tok/s. Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.31s vs 1.01s).

When should I use Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) for lower cost, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.