AI model comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs MiniMax M1
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
MiniMax
MiniMax M1
MiniMax-M1 is a large-scale, open-weight reasoning model designed for extended context and high-efficiency inference.
- Input / 1M
- $0.55
- Output / 1M
- $2.20
- Context
- 1M
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
1.6x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
MiniMax M1
11.7 vs 9.9 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
MiniMax M1
1M vs 262K 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
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct9.9Coding index
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructNot availableAgentic index
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructNot availablePricing
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs MiniMax M1 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.21 | $0.55 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.90 | $2.20 |
| 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
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$1.37Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$13.90$10.60 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$35.30$18.80 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | 33K tokens | 40K 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 | June 17, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Not supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Not supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructView full model details- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 Mini
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder Next
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs DeepSeek V3 0324
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs R1
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs o3 Mini High
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Mistral Large 3 2512
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3.1
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Devstral 2 2512
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs GLM 4.5V
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Hermes 4 405B
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Nova Pro 1.0
Our take
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 1.6x cheaper for a typical chat. MiniMax M1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (11.7 vs 9.9). MiniMax M1 has the larger context window (1M vs 262K 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 MiniMax M1 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 MiniMax M1 costs $0.55 per 1M input tokens and $2.20 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct or MiniMax M1?
MiniMax M1 supports up to 1M tokens of context, compared with 262K for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.
Is Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct smarter than MiniMax M1?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores 9.9 and MiniMax M1 scores 11.7, putting MiniMax M1 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 MiniMax M1 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 MiniMax M1 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and MiniMax M1 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.