Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct vs Grok Code Fast 1 vs Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)
Grok Code Fast 1 comes out ahead, 48 to 44 and 24 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct
44/100- ECI—
- Price$0.905 / $1.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
xAIGrok Code Fast 1
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.50
- Context256K
Aion Labs
Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)
24/100- ECI—
- Price$0.80 / $1.60
- Context33K
Grok Code Fast 1 is our pick
Grok Code Fast 1 is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct (44) and Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) (24). It leads on price and context window. Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct wins on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceGrok Code Fast 1Grok Code Fast 1 $0.525 · Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct $0.93 · Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGrok Code Fast 1Grok Code Fast 1 256,000 · Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct 131,072 · Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen2.5-VL 72B InstructQwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct: Text, Images · Grok Code Fast 1: Text · Aion-RP 1.0 (8B): Text
- Self-hostingQwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct and Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct | Grok Code Fast 1 | Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 49 | 60 | 48 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 35 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 36 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 44/100 | 48/100 | 24/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen2.5-VL 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Grok Code Fast 1xAI | Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)Aion Labs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.905 | $0.20 (best) | $0.80 |
| Output | $1.00 (best) | $1.50 | $1.60 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.93 | $0.525 (best) | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 6 providers | Median of 5 providers | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 10,000 tokens | 29,491 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 6 | 7 (best) | 4 |
| Released | Jan 26, 2025 | Sep 2, 2025 | Feb 4, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | — | Dec 31, 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct$11.06
- Grok Code Fast 1$5.00
- Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)$11.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct, Grok Code Fast 1 or Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)?
Grok Code Fast 1 is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct (44) and Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) (24). It leads on price and context window. Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct wins on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct, Grok Code Fast 1 or Aion-RP 1.0 (8B)?
Grok Code Fast 1 is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct costs $0.905 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers); Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) costs $0.80 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for Grok Code Fast 1 versus $0.93 for Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct (1.8× as much) and $1.00 for Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) (1.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct has not been scored yet, Grok Code Fast 1 has not been scored yet and Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct, Grok Code Fast 1 and Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Grok Code Fast 1 has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct and 32,768 for Aion-RP 1.0 (8B). Maximum output per response: Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct up to 8,192, Grok Code Fast 1 up to 10,000, Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) up to 29,491 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct accepts text and images; Grok Code Fast 1 accepts text; Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) accepts text. Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct and Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok Code Fast 1 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok Code Fast 1 is the newest, released Sep 2, 2025. Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) came out Feb 4, 2025; Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct came out Jan 26, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen2.5-VL 72B Instruct Apr 2024, Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) Dec 31, 2023.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
