Jamba 1.5 Large vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 10.8x cheaper per token.
AI21 Labs · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Jamba 1.5 Large outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro). Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is roughly 10.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Jamba 1.5 Large also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Jamba 1.5 Large
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
- cost matters — it's about 10.8x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Jamba 1.5 Large outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Jamba 1.5 Large ($2.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Jamba 1.5 Large ($8.00/1M tokens) is 11.4x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.70/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Jamba 1.5 Large is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Jamba 1.5 Large has 367.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct, making it 1183.9% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's 131,072 tokens. Jamba 1.5 Large can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is limited to 32,768 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Jamba 1.5 Large does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Jamba 1.5 Large
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Jamba 1.5 Large is licensed under Jamba Open Model License, 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.
Jamba Open Model License
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Jamba 1.5 Large was released on 2024-08-22, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 13 months newer than Jamba 1.5 Large.
Aug 22, 2024
2.0 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
1.1yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Jamba 1.5 Large has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-03-05, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Jamba 1.5 Large's training data extends to 2024-03-05, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's cutoff date.
Mar 2024
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Provider Availability
Jamba 1.5 Large is available from Bedrock, Google. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Jamba 1.5 Large
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Jamba 1.5 Large and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Jamba 1.5 Large vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.