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Grok 4 Fast vs Qwen3.8-27B

Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4 Fast outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam). Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

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

Choose Grok 4 Fast

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $0.50/M output

Choose Qwen3.8-27B

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Benchmark wins
0 of 2
2 of 2
Input price
$0.20 / M
— / M
Output price
$0.50 / M
— / M
Context window
2,000,000
Released
Aug 2025
Aug 2026
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Grok 4 Fast outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam).

Qwen3.8-27B 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 Grok 4 Fast specifies input context (2,000,000 tokens). Only Grok 4 Fast specifies output context (30,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4 Fast
Input2,000,000 tokens
Output30,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8-27B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok 4 Fast and Qwen3.8-27B support multimodal inputs.

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

Grok 4 Fast

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8-27B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4 Fast is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.8-27B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Grok 4 Fast

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.8-27B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4 Fast was released on 2025-08-28, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.

Qwen3.8-27B is 12 months newer than Grok 4 Fast.

Grok 4 Fast

Aug 28, 2025

12 months ago

Qwen3.8-27B

Aug 14, 2026

1 weeks ago

11mo 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 4 Fast and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4 Fast
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8-27B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4 Fast vs Qwen3.8-27B.

Which is better, Grok 4 Fast or Qwen3.8-27B?

Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok 4 Fast is made by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B 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 4 Fast compare to Qwen3.8-27B in benchmarks?

Grok 4 Fast scores SimpleQA: 95.0%, HMMT 2025: 93.3%, AIME 2025: 92.0%, GPQA: 85.7%, LiveCodeBench: 80.0%. Qwen3.8-27B scores MathVision: 94.6%, OmniDocBench 1.5: 91.1%, LiveCodeBench v6: 90.3%, CharXiv-R: 90.2%, GPQA: 89.2%.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4 Fast and Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok 4 Fast supports 2.0M tokens and Qwen3.8-27B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok 4 Fast and Qwen3.8-27B?

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

Who makes Grok 4 Fast and Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok 4 Fast is developed by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.