DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 24.8 to 13.2. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is 4.4x cheaper per token.
DeepSeek · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score 24.8 to 13.2, ranking #151 overall.
On price, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is roughly 4.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
- cost matters — it's about 4.4x cheaper per token
Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
- overall performance matters — it scores 24.8 and ranks #151 on LLM Stats
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B · 50 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B ($0.12/1M tokens) is 2.5x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.30/1M tokens).
For output processing, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B ($0.18/1M tokens) is 8.3x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($1.49/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is more expensive than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has 203.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B, making it 619.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B does not.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B was released on 2025-01-20, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 8 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
8mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is available from DeepInfra. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.