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Grok-2 mini vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Grok-2 mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok-2 mini outperforms in 2 benchmarks (MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok-2 mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok-2 mini

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

  • 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.

Grok-2 mini
xAI
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Benchmark wins
2 of 2
0 of 2
Input price
— / M
$0.08 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.50 / M
Context window
—
131,072
Released
Aug 2024
Sep 2025
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Grok-2 mini outperforms in 2 benchmarks (MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Grok-2 mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

xAI
Grok-2 mini
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok-2 mini and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Grok-2 mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-2 mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Grok-2 mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-2 mini was released on 2024-08-13, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is 14 months newer than Grok-2 mini.

Grok-2 mini

Aug 13, 2024

2.0 years ago

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

11 months ago

1.1yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok-2 mini and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-2 mini
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-2 mini vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.

Which is better, Grok-2 mini or Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?

Grok-2 mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok-2 mini is made by xAI and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Grok-2 mini compare to Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

Grok-2 mini scores DocVQA: 93.2%, MMLU: 86.2%, HumanEval: 85.7%, MATH: 73.0%, MMLU-Pro: 72.0%. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 96.1%, ScreenSpot: 94.4%, OCRBench: 89.6%, AI2D: 85.7%, MMBench-V1.1: 85.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok-2 mini and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?

Grok-2 mini supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok-2 mini and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-2 mini and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?

Grok-2 mini is developed by xAI and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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