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

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)vsGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (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
162 tok/s
TTFT
1.11s
xAI

Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
91 tok/s
TTFT
31.17s

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 (4-7)
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (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 0309 v2 (Reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
162 tok/s
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)
91 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)
1.11s
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)
31.17s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
26.749.3
Coding Index
19.540.5
Math Index
84.3
GPQA Diamond
75.9%91.1%
MMLU-Pro
82.4%
LiveCodeBench
78.4%
AIME 2025
84.3%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
11.7%32.2%
SciCode
38.8%45.6%
IFBench
60.7%81.2%
TerminalBench
9.8%37.9%
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning)4 wins
7 winsGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) or Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (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 162 tok/s vs 91 tok/s. Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (1.11s vs 31.17s).

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