Grok-1.5 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking leads the LLM Stats Score 18.3 to -2.5.
xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking leads the overall LLM Stats Score 18.3 to -2.5, ranking #203 overall.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Grok-1.5
- you are already invested in the xAI ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- overall performance matters — it scores 18.3 and ranks #203 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
9 reported for Grok-1.5 · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Grok-1.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies output context (32,768 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Grok-1.5 does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Grok-1.5
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok-1.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Grok-1.5 was released on 2024-03-28, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 18 months newer than Grok-1.5.
Mar 28, 2024
2.4 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
1.5yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok-1.5 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok-1.5 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.