Model Comparison
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 62.9x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Gemma 3n E4B Instructed vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking — which is better?
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed (by Google) and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 6 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Include, MMLU, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX). Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is roughly 62.9x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking also accepts a larger context window (131,072 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Gemma 3n E4B Instructed if…
- you want predictable pricing at $20.00/M input and $40.00/M output
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 6 shared benchmarks
- cost matters — it's about 62.9x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 131,072 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 6 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Include, MMLU, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX).
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Gemma 3n E4B Instructed ($20.00/1M tokens) is 100.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Gemma 3n E4B Instructed ($40.00/1M tokens) is 40.4x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.99/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Gemma 3n E4B Instructed is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking has 23.0B more parameters than Gemma 3n E4B Instructed, making it 287.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Gemma 3n E4B Instructed's 32,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 32,768 tokens, while Gemma 3n E4B Instructed is limited to 32,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Gemma 3n E4B Instructed and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed was released on 2025-06-26, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 3 months newer than Gemma 3n E4B Instructed.
Jun 26, 2025
1.1 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
10 months ago
2mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Gemma 3n E4B Instructed's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's cutoff date.
Jun 2024
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Provider Availability
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed is available from Together. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Gemma 3n E4B Instructed
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Gemma 3n E4B Instructed and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Gemma 3n E4B Instructed vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.