Qwen3 Coder Flash vs Grok Code Fast 1 vs ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B
Qwen3 Coder Flash comes out ahead, 51 to 48 and 44 on our weighted score, though Grok Code Fast 1 is 13% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Coder Flash
51/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $1.50
- Context1M
xAIGrok Code Fast 1
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.50
- Context256K
BaiduERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B
44/100- ECI—
- Price$0.42 / $1.25
- Context123K
Qwen3 Coder Flash is our pick
Qwen3 Coder Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 51/100 against Grok Code Fast 1 (48) and ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B (44). It leads on context window. Grok Code Fast 1 wins on price. 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 · Qwen3 Coder Flash $0.60 · ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B $0.627 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash 1,000,000 · Grok Code Fast 1 256,000 · ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B 123,000 tokens
- Widest inputsERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Qwen3 Coder Flash: Text · Grok Code Fast 1: Text · ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B : Text, Images
- Self-hostingERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Coder Flash | Grok Code Fast 1 | ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 58 | 60 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 35 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 36 | 23 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 48/100 | 44/100 |
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 | Qwen3 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | Grok Code Fast 1xAI | ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Baidu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.20 (best) | $0.42 |
| Output | $1.50 | $1.50 | $1.25 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.06 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.60 | $0.525 (best) | $0.627 |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.50 / $2.50 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 5 providers | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens | 123,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 10,000 tokens | 16,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3-coder-flash | — | — |
| API providers | 10 (best) | 7 | 1 |
| Released | Jul 28, 2025 | Sep 2, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | — | Mar 31, 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 Coder Flash$6.00
- Grok Code Fast 1$5.00
- ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B $6.70
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Coder Flash, Grok Code Fast 1 or ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B ?
Qwen3 Coder Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 51/100 against Grok Code Fast 1 (48) and ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B (44). It leads on context window. Grok Code Fast 1 wins on price. 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, Qwen3 Coder Flash, Grok Code Fast 1 or ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B ?
Grok Code Fast 1 is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). Qwen3 Coder Flash costs $0.30 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B costs $0.42 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $0.60 for Qwen3 Coder Flash (1.1× as much) and $0.627 for ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 Coder Flash has not been scored yet, Grok Code Fast 1 has not been scored yet and ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Coder Flash, Grok Code Fast 1 and ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Coder Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 256,000 for Grok Code Fast 1 and 123,000 for ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B . Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536, Grok Code Fast 1 up to 10,000, ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B up to 16,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Coder Flash accepts text; Grok Code Fast 1 accepts text; ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B accepts text and images. ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Coder Flash and Grok Code Fast 1 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok Code Fast 1 is the newest, released Sep 2, 2025. Qwen3 Coder Flash came out Jul 28, 2025; ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B came out Jun 30, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Coder Flash Apr 2025, ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Mar 31, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
