AI model comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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-Thinking is a multimodal model that unifies strong text generation with visual understanding for images and videos. Its Thinking variant enhances reasoning in STEM, math, and complex tasks.
- Input / 1M
- $0.29
- Output / 1M
- $1
- Context
- 262K
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
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
1.8x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
9.5 vs 7.9 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
262K vs 262K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Released October 6, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking9.5Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct7.9Coding index
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingNot availableQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructNot availableAgentic index
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingNot availableQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructNot availablePricing
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.29 | $0.15 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.60 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | 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 30B A3B Thinking$1.08Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$0.60Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking$12.70Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$6.90Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking$45.50Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$23.70Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Max output | 236K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text | Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | October 6, 2025 | October 6, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Not supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Not 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.
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Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructView full model details- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs GPT-4o-mini
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
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- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 32B
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 14B
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Solar Pro 3
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Sonar
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 30B A3B
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Hermes 3 70B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Saba
Our take
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 1.8x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (9.5 vs 7.9). 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 Thinking or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking costs $0.29 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 262K for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.
Is Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking smarter than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking scores 9.5 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct scores 7.9, putting Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.