Compare/Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) vs Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)vsGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

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

Alibaba

Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)

Input
$1.2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
45 tok/s
TTFT
1.90s
xAI

Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
75 tok/s
TTFT
0.61s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
Benchmarks (9-1)
Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$1.2$2
Output ($/M tokens)$6$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)$1.80
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)
45 tok/s
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
75 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)
1.90s
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
0.61s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
32.529.0
Coding Index
24.522.0
Math Index
82.3
GPQA Diamond
77.6%77.6%
MMLU-Pro
82.4%
LiveCodeBench
53.5%
AIME 2025
82.3%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
12.0%24.2%
SciCode
38.7%32.8%
IFBench
53.8%49.3%
TerminalBench
17.4%16.7%
Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview)9 wins
1 winsGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) or Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)?

Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $2.40/M tokens vs $3.00/M for Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) wins 9 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 1 for Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 75 tok/s vs 45 tok/s. However, Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.61s vs 1.90s).

When should I use Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) vs Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) for lower cost, Qwen3 Max Thinking (Preview) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.