Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Grok Code Fast 1
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 49 and 48 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
49/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $1.55
- Context131K
- Our pickAlibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
62/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context262K
xAIGrok Code Fast 1
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.50
- Context256K
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is our pick
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct (49) and Grok Code Fast 1 (48). It leads on price and 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 priceQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct $0.263 · Grok Code Fast 1 $0.525 · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $0.613 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct 262,144 · Grok Code Fast 1 256,000 · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: Text, Images · Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct: Text, Images, Video · Grok Code Fast 1: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct | Grok Code Fast 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 57 | 74 | 60 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 60 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 37 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 49/100 | 62/100 | 48/100 |
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 VL 235B A22B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Grok Code Fast 1xAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.15 (best) | $0.20 |
| Output | $1.55 | $0.60 (best) | $1.50 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.613 | $0.263 (best) | $0.525 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 16 providers | Median of 13 providers | Median of 5 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens (best) | 10,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 16 (best) | 13 | 7 |
| Released | Sep 23, 2025 | Oct 4, 2025 | Sep 2, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct$6.10
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$2.70
- Grok Code Fast 1$5.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct or Grok Code Fast 1?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct (49) and Grok Code Fast 1 (48). It leads on price and 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, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct or Grok Code Fast 1?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (median across 13 API providers). Grok Code Fast 1 costs $0.20 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.30 input / $1.55 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.263 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct versus $0.525 for Grok Code Fast 1 (2× as much) and $0.613 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct (2.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has not been scored yet, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has not been scored yet and Grok Code Fast 1 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and Grok Code Fast 1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Grok Code Fast 1 and 131,072 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct up to 32,768, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct up to 32,768, Grok Code Fast 1 up to 10,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts text and images; Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct accepts text, images and video; Grok Code Fast 1 accepts text. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Grok Code Fast 1 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is the newest, released Oct 4, 2025. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct came out Sep 23, 2025; Grok Code Fast 1 came out Sep 2, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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.
Related comparisons
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs GPT-5.1 Codex miniOpenAI
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Baidu
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3.1Mistral AI
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Grok 4.1 FastxAI
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Nemotron Nano 12B v2 VLNVIDIA
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs GLM-4.6V-FlashZ.ai (Zhipu)
