Compare/Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) vs Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)vsGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

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

Alibaba

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.84/M
Output
$6.175/M
Speed
34 tok/s
TTFT
1.23s
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 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
Benchmarks (6-5)
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.84$2
Output ($/M tokens)$6.175$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)$1.46
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)
34 tok/s
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
75 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)
1.23s
Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)
0.61s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
27.629.0
Coding Index
20.922.0
Math Index
88.3
GPQA Diamond
77.2%77.6%
MMLU-Pro
83.6%
LiveCodeBench
64.6%
AIME 2025
88.3%
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
10.1%24.2%
SciCode
39.9%32.8%
IFBench
56.5%49.3%
TerminalBench
11.4%16.7%
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning)6 wins
5 winsGrok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) or Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $2.17/M tokens vs $3.00/M for Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) wins 6 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 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 34 tok/s. However, Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.61s vs 1.23s).

When should I use Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) vs Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) for lower cost, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4.20 0309 v2 (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.