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

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)vsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

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

Alibaba

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)

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

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

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

Winner by Category

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

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.5$2
Output ($/M tokens)$6$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)$1.10
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
151 tok/s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
238 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
1.01s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)
10.94s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
26.748.5
Coding Index
19.542.2
Math Index
84.3
GPQA Diamond
75.9%88.5%
MMLU-Pro
82.4%
LiveCodeBench
78.4%
AIME 2025
84.3%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
11.7%30.0%
SciCode
38.8%44.7%
IFBench
60.7%82.9%
TerminalBench
9.8%40.9%
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)4 wins
7 winsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) or Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (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 (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (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?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Reasoning) generates tokens faster at 238 tok/s vs 151 tok/s. Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (1.01s vs 10.94s).

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

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) 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.