Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
Grok-3 Mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is 1.1x cheaper per token.
xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok-3 Mini outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is better at 0 benchmarks. Grok-3 Mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is roughly 1.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Grok-3 Mini
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
- cost matters — it's about 1.1x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok-3 Mini outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is better at 0 benchmarks.
Grok-3 Mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.30/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok-3 Mini ($0.50/1M tokens) is 1.6x cheaper than Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 ($0.80/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok-3 Mini is more expensive than Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Grok-3 Mini's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Grok-3 Mini is limited to 8,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Grok-3 Mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 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
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok-3 Mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 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-3 Mini was released on 2025-02-17, while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 was released on 2025-07-22.
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is 5 months newer than Grok-3 Mini.
Feb 17, 2025
1.5 years ago
Jul 22, 2025
1.1 years ago
5mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok-3 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-11-17, while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507'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 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507's cutoff date.
Nov 2024
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Provider Availability
Grok-3 Mini is available from xAI. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is available from Fireworks, Novita.
Grok-3 Mini
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok-3 Mini and Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok-3 Mini vs Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.