Grok Code Fast 1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Comparing Grok Code Fast 1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok Code Fast 1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is roughly 1.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok Code Fast 1 also accepts a larger context window (256,000 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 Code Fast 1
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- cost matters — it's about 1.3x cheaper per token
- 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 Code Fast 1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 Code Fast 1 ($0.20/1M tokens) costs the same as Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok Code Fast 1 ($1.50/1M tokens) is 1.5x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.99/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok Code Fast 1 is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok Code Fast 1 accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's 131,072 tokens. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 32,768 tokens, while Grok Code Fast 1 is limited to 10,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Grok Code Fast 1 does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Grok Code Fast 1
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok Code Fast 1 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 Code Fast 1 was released on 2025-08-28, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 1 month newer than Grok Code Fast 1.
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 Code Fast 1 is available from xAI. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Grok Code Fast 1
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok Code Fast 1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok Code Fast 1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.