AI model comparison

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct

Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.

Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct is a multimodal model that unifies strong text generation with visual understanding for images and videos. Its Instruct variant optimizes instruction-following for general multimodal tasks.

Input / 1M
$0.15
Output / 1M
$0.60
Context
262K

Hermes 3 is a generalist language model with many improvements over Hermes 2, including advanced agentic capabilities, much better roleplaying, reasoning, multi-turn conversation, long context coherence, and improvements across the

Input / 1M
$1
Output / 1M
$1
Context
131K

At a glance

Quick verdict

How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.

Lower price

qwen logo

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct

4.2x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

qwen logo

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct

7.9 vs 7.4 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

qwen logo

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct

262K vs 131K tokens

Newer release

qwen logo

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct

Released October 6, 2025

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

qwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct7.9
nousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct7.4

Coding index

qwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructNot available
nousresearch logoHermes 3 405B InstructNot available

Agentic index

qwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructNot available
nousresearch logoHermes 3 405B InstructNot available

Pricing

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricqwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instructnousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.15$1
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$0.60$1
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokensNot availableNot available
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot availableNot 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

qwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$0.60
nousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct$2.50

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

qwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$6.90
nousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct$34

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

qwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$23.70
nousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct$152

Specs

Context window and capabilities

How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.

Metricqwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instructnousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct
Context window262K tokens131K tokens
Max output16K tokens16K tokens
Input typesImage, TextText
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsNot availableNot available
Default reasoning effortNot availableNot available
Release dateOctober 6, 2025August 16, 2024

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricqwen logoQwen3 VL 30B A3B Instructnousresearch logoHermes 3 405B Instruct
Tool callingSupportedNot supported
Structured outputsSupportedSupported
JSON modeSupportedSupported
ReasoningNot supportedNot supported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedSupported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 4.2x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (7.9 vs 7.4). Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 30B A3B Instruct or Hermes 3 405B Instruct cheaper?

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens, while Hermes 3 405B Instruct costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct or Hermes 3 405B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 131K for Hermes 3 405B Instruct.

Is Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct smarter than Hermes 3 405B Instruct?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct scores 7.9 and Hermes 3 405B Instruct scores 7.4, putting Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and Hermes 3 405B Instruct at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and Hermes 3 405B Instruct answer side by side and keep the better response.

qwen logonousresearch logo

Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and Hermes 3 405B Instruct at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.