Model Comparison

Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Grok-3 Mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok-3 Mini is 1.0x cheaper per token.

Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Grok-3 Mini outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench), while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Grok-3 Mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Apr 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Grok-3 Mini costs less

For input processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.30/1M tokens) is 1.2x cheaper than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.35/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.50/1M tokens) is 1.3x more expensive than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct ($0.40/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is more expensive than Grok-3 Mini.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Apr 14 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok-3 Mini
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$0.50
Best providerxAI
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Input tokens$0.35
Output tokens$0.40
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Grok-3 Mini's 128,000 tokens. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 8,192 tokens, while Grok-3 Mini is limited to 8,000 tokens.

xAI
Grok-3 Mini
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Tue Apr 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Grok-3 Mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 72B Instruct does not.

Grok-3 Mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok-3 Mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-3 Mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct uses Qwen.

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

Grok-3 Mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Qwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-3 Mini was released on 2025-02-17, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19.

Grok-3 Mini is 5 months newer than Qwen2.5 72B Instruct.

Grok-3 Mini

Feb 17, 2025

1.2 years ago

5mo newer
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Sep 19, 2024

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok-3 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-11-17, while Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok-3 Mini's training data extends to 2024-11-17, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen2.5 72B Instruct's cutoff date.

Grok-3 Mini

Nov 2024

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

—

Provider Availability

Grok-3 Mini is available from xAI. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Fireworks, Together.

Grok-3 Mini

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.50/1M

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.35/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
hyperbolic logo
Hyperbolic
Input Price:Input: $0.40/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
fireworks logo
Fireworks
Input Price:Input: $0.89/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.89/1M
together logo
Together
Input Price:Input: $1.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

xAI
Supports multimodal inputs
Less expensive input tokens
Higher GPQA score (84.0% vs 49.0%)
Higher LiveCodeBench score (80.4% vs 55.5%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (131,072 tokens)
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights
xAIGrok-3 Mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen TeamQwen2.5 72B Instruct
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
xAI
Grok-3 Mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct

Grok-3 Mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok-3 Mini is made by xAI and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
Grok-3 Mini scores AIME 2024: 95.8%, AIME 2025: 90.8%, GPQA: 84.0%, LiveCodeBench: 80.4%. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores GSM8k: 95.8%, MT-Bench: 93.5%, MBPP: 88.2%, MMLU-Redux: 86.8%, HumanEval: 86.6%.
Grok-3 Mini is 1.2x cheaper for input tokens. Grok-3 Mini costs $0.30/M input and $0.50/M output via xai. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output via deepinfra.
Grok-3 Mini supports 128K tokens and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include context window (128K vs 131K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.35/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Qwen). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
Grok-3 Mini is developed by xAI and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.