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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Max vs Grok 4.1 Fast

Grok 4.1 Fast comes out ahead, 66 to 62 and 30 on our weighted score.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct

    Released Oct 4, 2025

    62/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025Deprecated

    30/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  3. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.1 Fast

    Released Nov 19, 2025

    66/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $0.50
    • Context2M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.1 Fast
01 — Verdict

Grok 4.1 Fast is our pick

Grok 4.1 Fast is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct (62) and Qwen3 Max (30). It leads on context window. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 priceQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct $0.263 · Grok 4.1 Fast $0.275 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.1 FastGrok 4.1 Fast 2,000,000 · Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct 262,144 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3 Max: Text · Grok 4.1 Fast: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3 MaxGrok 4.1 Fast
Price50%743073
Inputs & features30%602550
Context window20%373772
Overall100%62/10030/10066/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Max vs Grok 4.1 Fast specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Grok 4.1 FastxAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—142.4—
ECI rank—#101 of 165—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—72.6%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—73.3%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15 (best)$1.20$0.20
Output$0.60$6.00$0.50 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.263 (best)$2.40$0.275
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 13 providersOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 6 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens2,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens65,536 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0ProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—qwen3-max—
API providers13 (best)13 (best)8
ReleasedOct 4, 2025Sep 23, 2025Nov 19, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 2025—
03 — Cost

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 30B A3B Instruct$2.70
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • Grok 4.1 Fast$3.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct, Qwen3 Max or Grok 4.1 Fast?

Grok 4.1 Fast is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct (62) and Qwen3 Max (30). It leads on context window. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct, Qwen3 Max or Grok 4.1 Fast?

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (median across 13 API providers). Grok 4.1 Fast costs $0.20 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers); Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.275 for Grok 4.1 Fast (1× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (9.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has not been scored yet, Qwen3 Max has an ECI of 142.4 and Grok 4.1 Fast has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct, Qwen3 Max and Grok 4.1 Fast 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?

Grok 4.1 Fast has the largest context window at 2,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and 262,144 for Qwen3 Max. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct up to 32,768, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Grok 4.1 Fast up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct accepts text, images and video; Qwen3 Max accepts text; Grok 4.1 Fast accepts text and images. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max and Grok 4.1 Fast is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.1 Fast is the newest, released Nov 19, 2025. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct came out Oct 4, 2025; Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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