Compare/Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)

Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)vsQwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)

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

xAI

Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)

Input
$0.2/M
Output
$0.5/M
Speed
90 tok/s
TTFT
0.39s
Alibaba

Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.09/M
Output
$0.45/M
Speed
67 tok/s
TTFT
1.15s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)
Benchmarks (4-8)
Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricGrok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.2$0.09
Output ($/M tokens)$0.5$0.45
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)$0.25
Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)$0.14

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)
90 tok/s
Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)
67 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)
0.39s
Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)
1.15s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
23.115.3
Coding Index
19.011.0
Math Index
41.372.3
GPQA Diamond
60.6%61.6%
MMLU-Pro
73.0%77.7%
LiveCodeBench
40.1%50.6%
AIME 2025
41.3%72.3%
MATH-500
95.9%
Humanity's Last Exam
5.0%6.6%
SciCode
32.9%28.5%
IFBench
37.7%41.5%
TerminalBench
12.1%2.3%
Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning)4 wins
8 winsQwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning) or Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)?

Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.18/M tokens vs $0.28/M for Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning) wins 8 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 4 for Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 90 tok/s vs 67 tok/s. Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.39s vs 1.15s).

When should I use Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning) for lower cost, Qwen3 30B A3B (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4 Fast (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.