Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

    Comparison

    As of August 21, 2026, Grok-3 Mini is 55% cheaper per million tokens than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Grok-3 Mini is $0.30 / $0.50 per million input/output tokens versus Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct at $0.30 / $1.49. Sources: https://docs.x.ai/docs/models and https://bailian.console.aliyun.com/

    Sources: xAI API pricing (https://docs.x.ai/docs/models); Qwen pricing (https://bailian.console.aliyun.com/)

    Better value

    Grok-3 Mini

    xAI

    $0.80blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.30

    Output

    $0.50

    128K ctx|Proprietary
    55%
    cheaper

    Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

    Qwen

    $1.79blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.30

    Output

    $1.49

    262.1K ctx|Open Source
    Save $0.99 per million tokens by choosing Grok-3 Mini over Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.

    Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Grok-3 Mini
    Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
    Provider
    Provider
    xAI
    Qwen
    License
    Proprietary
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2025-02-17
    2025-09-22
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price0%
    $0.30
    $0.30
    Output Price-66%
    $0.50
    $1.49
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $0.80
    $1.79
    Model Details
    Context Window
    128K
    262.1K
    Max Output Tokens
    8K
    262.1K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    2024-11-17
    N/A
    Throughput
    100 tok/s
    N/A
    Benchmarks
    84%
    51.9%
    87.8%
    0.4%
    66.7%
    68.1%
    62.1%
    90.8%
    74.7%
    95.8%
    82.8%
    88.8%
    69.4%
    95.8%
    89.7%
    67.7%
    70.7%
    82.2%
    64.8%
    83.4%
    97.1%
    51.3%
    57.4%
    80%
    89.2%
    67.7%
    66.5%
    84.3%
    89.9%
    81.8%
    77.8%
    92.2%
    78.7%
    78.4%
    72.8%
    76.3%
    86.1%
    92%
    48.6%
    79.3%
    95.4%
    60.4%
    74.7%
    85.5%
    Benchmark Wins
    Grok-3 Mini 1|1 Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

    Verdict

    Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: the bottom line

    Both models are closely matched on benchmarks. Grok-3 Mini has the pricing advantage, making it the better value unless Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct's specific capabilities are critical to your workflow.

    Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Grok-3 Mini or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

    As of August 21, 2026, Grok-3 Mini is 55% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Grok-3 Mini costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens ($0.80 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.30 / $1.49 per million tokens ($1.79 blended). Sources: https://docs.x.ai/docs/models and https://bailian.console.aliyun.com/. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct cost per million tokens?

    Grok-3 Mini xAI API pricing is $0.30 input and $0.50 output per million tokens via xAI. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct Qwen API pricing is $0.30 input and $1.49 output per million tokens via Qwen. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Grok-3 Mini or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

    Grok-3 Mini has a published LiveCodeBench score of 80.4%. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

    Grok-3 Mini supports a 128K token context window, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports 262K tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Grok-3 Mini or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

    Grok-3 Mini and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct are tied across 2 shared benchmarks. Check the table for category-level strengths. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Grok-3 Mini or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct better for production use?

    Both Grok-3 Mini and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Grok-3 Mini has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Grok-3 Mini and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct in my app?

    Yes. Call Grok-3 Mini through xAI and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct through Qwen with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published xAI API pricing and Qwen API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://docs.x.ai/docs/models and https://bailian.console.aliyun.com/. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Grok-3 Mini and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

    Grok-3 Mini supports up to 8K output tokens per request, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports up to 262K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Grok-3 Mini or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

    Grok-3 Mini has a measured throughput of approximately 100 tokens/second. Throughput data for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is not yet available. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Grok-3 Mini or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Grok-3 Mini costs $0.30/M input and $0.50/M output. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.30/M input and $1.49/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

    The index

    All Large Language Models

    280 models across 33 providers. Search or jump to a lab — every model page stays linked here.

    Baidu

    1 models

    Inception

    1 models

    inclusionAI

    1 models

    LG AI Research

    1 models

    Nous Research

    1 models

    Sakana AI

    1 models

    StepFun

    1 models

    Tencent

    1 models

    Thinking Machines

    1 models

    Unisound

    1 models

    Upstage

    1 models

    Next step

    You found the model. Now ship the product.

    Auth, billing, and the API layer are already decided. Fork 8 finished AI apps, or have us build the first version with you.