Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Grok 4 vs Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct benchmark

Name: Grok 4 vs Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Grok 4 (xAI) and Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct wins on output price at $0.28/1M. Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has the larger context window (262k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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xAI

Grok 4

Previous xAI flagship.

Elo 1,488$15/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (qwen/qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct). Preview until a second source matches.

$0.28/1M out

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Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Grok 4 (6)vsQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (3)

Grok 4: 6W (67%)Overall: Grok 4Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 3W (33%)

← Grok 4Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct →

Grok 4 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,488vs—

Coding Elo

—vs—

SWE-bench

58.6%vs—

LiveBench

64.1%vs—

GPQA Diamond

79%vs—

Grok 4: 4WQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 0W

Grok 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

98 tok/svs—

Time to first token

230 msvs—

Grok 4: 2WQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 0W

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.28/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.07/1M

Context window

256kvs262k

Grok 4: 0WQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageGrok 4 4/6

Preference Elo

No shared data

Throughput Speed

No shared data

Price Efficiency

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

$14.72/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,488

EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

64.1%

LiveBenchHigh is better

—

SWE-bench

High is better

58.6%

SWE-benchHigh is better

—

GPQA

High is better

79%

GPQAHigh is better

—

TTFT

Low is better

230 ms

TTFTLow is better

—

Speed

High is better

98 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

—

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$0.07/1M+4186%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$0.28/1M+5257%

Context

High is better

256k

ContextHigh is better

262k+2%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 98% with Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Grok 4$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct$6.65 / mo

In: $2.45Out: $4.20

Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is estimated to save $323.35/month ($3,880/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct:Pick Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct when you are optimizing output cost.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4

Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4	Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchJul 10, 2025

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

2025-07 row. 4.6 is the buy. We keep 4 so upgrade pairs and old inbound links resolve.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM Matrix

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LIVE

xAI

Grok 4

Elo 1,488

LiveBench64.1%

SWE-bench58.6%

Speed98 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Alibaba

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Elo n/a

LiveBench—

SWE-bench—

Speed—

Output cost$0.28/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?: We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?: SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?: We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?: Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct accepts 262k tokens versus 256k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Grok 4 and Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Grok 4 matchups →|All Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct matchups →

Grok 4 vs Grok 3 (previous grok)Grok 4 vs Grok 4.6 (next grok)Qwen 3 Max vs Grok 4 Qwen QwQ 32B vs Grok 4 Qwen 2.5 Plus vs Grok 4 Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking vs Grok 4

Grok 4 vs Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Grok 4 (6)vsQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (3)

Grok 4: 6W (67%)Overall: Grok 4Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 3W (33%)

← Grok 4Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct →

Grok 4 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,488vs—

Coding Elo

—vs—

SWE-bench

58.6%vs—

LiveBench

64.1%vs—

GPQA Diamond

79%vs—

Grok 4: 4WQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 0W

Grok 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

98 tok/svs—

Time to first token

230 msvs—

Grok 4: 2WQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 0W

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.28/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.07/1M

Context window

256kvs262k

Grok 4: 0WQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGQwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4

Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4	Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.

Which is better at coding, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Grok 4 or Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

We do not have TTFT for both models.

Which has the larger context window?

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct accepts 262k tokens versus 256k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Grok 4 and Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

No shared data

No shared data

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Grok 4

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

No shared data

No shared data

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Grok 4

Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons