Grok-4 Fast Reasoning vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Comparing Grok-4 Fast Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Grok-4 Fast Reasoning is roughly 4.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning also accepts a larger context window (2,000,000 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-4 Fast Reasoning
- cost matters — it's about 4.4x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 2,000,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
- 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.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinkingdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok-4 Fast Reasoning ($0.20/1M tokens) is 2.3x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($0.45/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok-4 Fast Reasoning ($0.50/1M tokens) is 7.0x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($3.49/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is more expensive than Grok-4 Fast Reasoning.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning accepts 2,000,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking's 262,144 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Grok-4 Fast Reasoning is limited to 30,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Grok-4 Fast Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B 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-4 Fast Reasoning was released on 2025-08-28, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is 1 month newer than Grok-4 Fast Reasoning.
Aug 28, 2025
12 months ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
3w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning is available from xAI. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
Grok-4 Fast Reasoning
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok-4 Fast Reasoning and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok-4 Fast Reasoning vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.