Compare/Qwen2.5 Max vs Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Qwen2.5 MaxvsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

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

Alibaba

Qwen2.5 Max

Input
$1.6/M
Output
$6.4/M
Speed
48 tok/s
TTFT
1.09s
xAI

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
238 tok/s
TTFT
10.94s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen2.5 Max
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
Lower Latency
Qwen2.5 Max
Benchmarks (3-7)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen2.5 MaxGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$1.6$2
Output ($/M tokens)$6.4$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Qwen2.5 Max$2.24
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen2.5 Max
48 tok/s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
238 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen2.5 Max
1.09s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
10.94s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
16.348.5
Coding Index
42.2
Math Index
GPQA Diamond
58.7%88.5%
MMLU-Pro
76.2%
LiveCodeBench
35.9%
AIME 2025
MATH-500
83.5%
Humanity's Last Exam
4.5%30.0%
SciCode
33.7%44.7%
IFBench
82.9%
TerminalBench
40.9%
Qwen2.5 Max3 wins
7 winsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 Max or Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)?

Qwen2.5 Max is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $2.80/M tokens vs $3.00/M for Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 3 for Qwen2.5 Max. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 238 tok/s vs 48 tok/s. Qwen2.5 Max also has lower time-to-first-token (1.09s vs 10.94s).

When should I use Qwen2.5 Max vs Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen2.5 Max for lower cost, Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.