Compare / Qwen3.5-Flash vs Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)

Qwen3.5-Flash vs Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 10 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-Flash $0.065 in · $0.26 out
xAIGrok 4.1 Fast (reasoning) Released 19 Nov 2025 · Not on sale
Qwen3.5-Flash wins 21 too close to callGrok 4.1 Fast (reasoning) wins 7

Of the 10 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs xAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-Flash or Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)? The short answer

They score and cost about the same: pick on the results below that match your work.

  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-Flash does better for sticking to the facts; Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning) for agents and tool use and writing.

Head to head

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-FlashGrok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)
Price per million tokens$0.065 in · $0.26 outNot on sale
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.11–
Cheapest host, blended––
Intelligence Index–20.4
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,000,000 tokens–
Released–19 Nov 2025
WeightsClosedClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 143 of 164 59 of 165
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge not measured 91 of 199
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 115 of 188 82 of 189
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 119 of 152 134 of 153

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3.5-FlashGrok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 142 · 97 of 387 measured 1,396 1,430
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 123 · 124 of 163 measured 1,414 1,413
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 114 of 380 measured 1,403 1,417
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 62 · 96 of 104 measured 10.5% 19.2%
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 31 · 41 of 104 measured 99.8% 99.7%
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 48 · 43 of 58 measured $462.69 $1,107
Show all 10 results (4 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-FlashGrok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 167 · 75 of 385 measured 1,337 1,414
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 116 of 338 measured 1,419 1,438
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 148 · 121 of 387 measured 1,381 1,402
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 149 · 93 of 386 measured 1,367 1,408

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)?

They score and cost about the same: pick on the results below that match your work.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-Flash or Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)?

Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning) ranks 59 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 143 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-Flash or Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)?

Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning) ranks 82 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 115 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-Flash or Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning)?

Qwen3.5-Flash ranks 119 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 134 for Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning).

Run Qwen3.5-Flash and Grok 4.1 Fast (reasoning) on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.