DeepSeek-R1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Comparing DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
DeepSeek · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is roughly 3.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek-R1
- you want predictable pricing at $0.55/M input and $2.19/M output
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 3.0x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Individual benchmarks
0 reported for DeepSeek-R1 · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 ($0.55/1M tokens) is 2.8x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, DeepSeek-R1 ($2.19/1M tokens) is 3.1x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.70/1M tokens).
In conclusion, DeepSeek-R1 is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
DeepSeek-R1 has 640.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct, making it 2064.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 131,072 tokens. DeepSeek-R1 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is limited to 32,768 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek-R1 does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
DeepSeek-R1
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek-R1 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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 was released on 2025-01-20, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 8 months newer than DeepSeek-R1.
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 is available from DeepSeek, DeepInfra, Together, Fireworks. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
DeepSeek-R1
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek-R1 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.