Qwen3 14B vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek-V3.1
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) comes out ahead, 68 to 55 and 54 on our weighted score, though DeepSeek-V3.1 is 2.6× cheaper per token.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 14B
54/100- ECI138.2
- Price$0.35 / $1.40
- Context131K
- Our pick
xAIGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)
68/100- ECI152.0
- Price$1.25 / $2.50
- Context1M
DeepSeekDeepSeek-V3.1
55/100- ECI139.9
- Price$0.385 / $1.25
- Context131K
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is our pick
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against DeepSeek-V3.1 (55) and Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 · DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 · Qwen3 14B 138.2
- Lowest priceDeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek-V3.1 $0.601 · Qwen3 14B $0.613 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 · Qwen3 14B 131,072 · DeepSeek-V3.1 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Qwen3 14B: Text · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs · DeepSeek-V3.1: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 14B and DeepSeek-V3.1Publishes downloadable weights (MIT License)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 14B | Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) | DeepSeek-V3.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 63 | 81 | 65 |
| Price | 25% | 60 | 41 | 60 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 80 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 60 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 54/100 | 68/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 14BAlibaba (Qwen) | Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAI | DeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 138.2 | 152.0 (best) | 139.9 |
| ECI rank | #107 of 148 | #41 of 148 (best) | #100 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 63.8% | 89.3% (best) | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 44.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 66.4% | 92.2% (best) | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 30.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.35 (best) | $1.25 | $0.385 |
| Output | $1.40 | $2.50 | $1.25 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.20 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.613 | $1.56 | $0.601 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $2.50 / $5.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official xAI API | Median of 8 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 30,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenMIT License |
| API model ID | qwen3-14b | grok-4.20-0309-reasoning | — |
| API providers | 1 | 11 (best) | 8 |
| Released | Apr 29, 2025 | Mar 9, 2026 | Aug 21, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3 14B$6.30
- Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)$17.50
- DeepSeek-V3.1$6.35
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 14B, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) or DeepSeek-V3.1?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against DeepSeek-V3.1 (55) and Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 14B, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) or DeepSeek-V3.1?
DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper at $0.385 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers). Qwen3 14B costs $0.35 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.601 per million tokens for DeepSeek-V3.1 versus $0.613 for Qwen3 14B (1× as much) and $1.56 for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) (2.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 (#41 of 148), DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 (#100 of 148) and Qwen3 14B 138.2 (#107 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (149.3–154.4 vs 136.1–143.3), so the gap is a real one.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 14B, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) and DeepSeek-V3.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 14B and 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 14B up to 8,192, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000, DeepSeek-V3.1 up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 14B accepts text; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) accepts text, images and PDFs; DeepSeek-V3.1 accepts text. Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 14B and DeepSeek-V3.1 publishes its weights (MIT License) and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the newest, released Mar 9, 2026. DeepSeek-V3.1 came out Aug 21, 2025; Qwen3 14B came out Apr 29, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 14B Apr 2025.
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 Oct 4, 2026.
Related comparisons
- Qwen3 14B vs GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI · ECI 135.0
- Qwen3 14B vs Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle · ECI 140.8
- Qwen3 14B vs Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI · ECI 134.1
- Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI · ECI 151.1
- Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle · ECI 151.8
- Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) vs GLM-5.2Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 151.8
