Grok 3 Mini vs QVQ 72B Preview
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
Grok 3 Mini
xAICost-effective xAI model for high-volume tasks. Good balance of capability and affordability.
| Input | $0.300/M |
| Output | $0.500/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | High-volume tasks, simple coding, cost-sensitive projects |
| Benchmark | 50/100 |
QVQ 72B Preview
QwenQwen's visual reasoning model. Advanced image + text reasoning capabilities.
| Input | $0.500/M |
| Output | $1.50/M |
| Context | 32K tokens |
| Best For | Image analysis, visual question answering, multimodal reasoning |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Grok 3 Mini | QVQ 72B Preview | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.03 | $0.06 | Grok 3 Mini saves $0.04 (59%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $0.21 | $0.48 | Grok 3 Mini saves $0.27 (57%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $1.02 | $2.38 | Grok 3 Mini saves $1.35 (57%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.07 | $0.13 | Grok 3 Mini saves $0.06 (48%) |
Verdict
Grok 3 Mini wins on both price and performance — $0.300/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
Compare with Other Models
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Claude Opus 4
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet
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Claude 3.5 Haiku
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Claude 3 Opus
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Claude 3 Sonnet
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