Model Comparison

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) vs Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)

xAI vs Alibaba

Side-by-side benchmarks, pricing, and value analysis. See which model costs less per intelligence point.

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) (xAI) and Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) (Alibaba) are both large language models available via API. On list price, Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) is cheaper, while Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) scores higher on benchmarks. When you factor in token efficiency — how many tokens each model needs for the same task — Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) delivers more intelligence per dollar. List prices can be misleading because different models consume different numbers of tokens for the same work. The effective costs below adjust for this using benchmark data, so you can compare what equivalent work actually costs.

Benchmark Scores

Intelligence Index

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) 32.0
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) 16.9

MMLU-Pro

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) 0.8
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) 0.8

GPQA

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) 0.8
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) 0.6

AIME

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) 0.9
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) 0.3

Performance

Metric Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) Gap
Output tokens/sec 173.7 45.3 3.8x
Time to first token 0.70s 1.12s 1.6x
Context window 2,000,000 32,000 62.5x

Pricing per 1M Tokens

Metric Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) Gap
Input price / 1M tokens $0.3 $0.7 2.3x
Output price / 1M tokens $0.5 $2.8 5.6x
Cache hit price / 1M tokens $1.25 $0.15 8.3x

Effective Cost per 1M Tokens

List prices adjusted for token efficiency. Different models use different numbers of tokens for the same task — these prices reflect what equivalent work actually costs.

Metric Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) Gap
Input (adjusted) / 1M $1.3451 $0.1561 8.6x
Output (adjusted) / 1M $1.3104 $1.0684 1.2x
Input token ratio 4.48x 0.22x
Output token ratio 2.62x 0.38x

Intelligence vs Price

Higher is smarter, further left is cheaper. Top-left is best value. Prices adjusted for token efficiency.

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 $1 $2 $5 $10 $20 Effective $/1M tokens (input + output) Intelligence Index Claude 4.5 Sonn... Gemini 2.5 Pro GPT-4.1 Gemini 2.5 Flas... Claude 4 Sonnet... GPT-4.1 mini DeepSeek R1 052... Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)
Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) Other models

Value Analysis

Cheaper

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high)

Higher Benchmarks

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high)

Better Value ($/IQ point)

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high)

$0.08 / IQ point

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)

$0.07 / IQ point

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) or Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)?

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) is cheaper on list price. Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) costs $0.3/M input and $0.5/M output tokens. Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) costs $0.7/M input and $2.8/M output tokens. On combined list price, Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) is 4.4x cheaper than Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning). However, list prices alone can be misleading because different models use different numbers of tokens for the same task. Check the effective cost comparison above, which adjusts for token efficiency using benchmark data.

Which scores higher on benchmarks, Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) or Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)?

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) has a higher Intelligence Index (32.0) compared to Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) (16.9). The Intelligence Index is a composite score from three industry-standard benchmarks: MMLU-Pro (general knowledge and reasoning), GPQA (graduate-level science), and AIME (mathematical problem solving). A higher score means the model produces more accurate and capable responses across a broad range of tasks. This composite approach is more reliable than any single benchmark because it measures different types of capability.

Which model is better value for money, Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) or Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)?

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) offers better value at $0.07 per intelligence point compared to Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) at $0.08 per intelligence point. Cost per intelligence point measures how much you pay for each unit of benchmark performance, calculated as the combined token cost divided by the Intelligence Index score. When token efficiency data is available, this calculation uses effective prices (adjusted for the fact that different models consume different numbers of tokens for the same task) rather than raw list prices. A lower cost per intelligence point means you get more capability per dollar.

Which has a larger context window, Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) or Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)?

Grok 3 mini Reasoning (high) supports 2,000,000 tokens compared to Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) with 32,000 tokens. The context window determines how much text (including your prompt, conversation history, and documents) the model can process in a single request. A larger context window is important for tasks like document summarization, long-form analysis, and multi-turn conversations with extensive history. If your use case involves processing large inputs, the context window may be a deciding factor.

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