AI model comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Hermes 4 405B
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B Instruct is an open-weight multimodal model that unifies strong text generation with visual understanding across images and video.
- Input / 1M
- $0.21
- Output / 1M
- $1.90
- Context
- 262K
Nous
Hermes 4 405B
Hermes 4 is a large-scale reasoning model built on Meta-Llama-3.1-405B and released by Nous Research.
- Input / 1M
- $1
- Output / 1M
- $3
- Context
- 131K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
2.6x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
9.9 vs 7.5 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
262K vs 131K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Released September 23, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Hermes 4 405B API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.21 | $1 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.90 | $3 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.10 | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 131K tokens |
| Max output | 33K tokens | 118K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | September 23, 2025 | August 26, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Not supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Not supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Our take
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 2.6x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (9.9 vs 7.5). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has the larger context window (262K vs 131K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct or Hermes 4 405B cheaper?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.21 per 1M input tokens and $1.90 per 1M output tokens, while Hermes 4 405B costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $3 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct or Hermes 4 405B?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 131K for Hermes 4 405B.
Is Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct smarter than Hermes 4 405B?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores 9.9 and Hermes 4 405B scores 7.5, putting Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Hermes 4 405B at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Hermes 4 405B answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Hermes 4 405B at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.