Compare/Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)vsQwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

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

xAI

Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
91 tok/s
TTFT
30.52s
Alibaba

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.5/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
170 tok/s
TTFT
1.07s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
Lower Latency
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
Benchmarks (7-4)
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (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 0309 v2 (Reasoning)$2.60
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)$1.10

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)
91 tok/s
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
170 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)
30.52s
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
1.07s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
49.326.7
Coding Index
40.519.5
Math Index
84.3
GPQA Diamond
91.1%75.9%
MMLU-Pro
82.4%
LiveCodeBench
78.4%
AIME 2025
84.3%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
32.2%11.7%
SciCode
45.6%38.8%
IFBench
81.2%60.7%
TerminalBench
37.9%9.8%
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)7 wins
4 winsQwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (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 0309 v2 (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 4 for Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 170 tok/s vs 91 tok/s. However, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (1.07s vs 30.52s).

When should I use Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) for lower cost, Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.