Grok 3 vs Qwen3-72B
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Grok 3 specs · Qwen3-72B specs- PriceGrok 3
Grok 3 publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not.
- Context windowTie
Both ship a 128K-token context window.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesGrok 3
Grok 3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Qwen3-72B.
- OpennessQwen3-72B
Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Grok 3 is API-only.
On balance Grok 3 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Qwen3-72B's 1. Grok 3 publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not. Both ship a 128K-token context window.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Grok 3 handles text, vision while Qwen3-72B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Grok 3 is API-only.
Qwen3-72B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Grok 3, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Grok 3 is usually picked for chatbots and research agent workloads, while Qwen3-72B sees more deployments in open source llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Grok 3 | Qwen3-72B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Alibaba |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-08 | , |
| Open weights | No | Yes (Apache-2.0) |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs ,
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Grok 3$1.05
- Qwen3-72BPricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,84.0
Grok 3 fits when…
- Real-time X access
- Reasoning modes
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Qwen3-72B fits when…
- Apache-2.0 license
- Strongest open-weight on Chinese
- Strong multilingual coverage
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Consider Grok 4
xAI's mid-2025 flagship, top scores on Humanity's Last Exam at launch, with native real-time X integration.
Frequently asked
Is Grok 3 or Qwen3-72B cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
Both Grok 3 and Qwen3-72B ship a 128K-token context window.Is Grok 3 or Qwen3-72B better for coding?
Both Grok 3 and Qwen3-72B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Grok 3 is API-only.When were Grok 3 and Qwen3-72B released?
Grok 3 was released by xAI on 2025-02-17. Qwen3-72B was released by Alibaba on 2025-04-29.
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