Magistral Small 2506 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct are closely matched at 10.7 and 16.4 on the LLM Stats Score.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 10.7 and 16.4.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Magistral Small 2506
- you are already invested in the Mistral AI ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- 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 Magistral Small 2506 · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Magistral Small 2506 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA).
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has 7.0B more parameters than Magistral Small 2506, making it 29.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Magistral Small 2506 does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Magistral Small 2506
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 3 months newer than Magistral Small 2506.
Jun 10, 2025
1.3 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
12 months ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Magistral Small 2506 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Magistral Small 2506's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's cutoff date.
Jun 2025
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Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Magistral Small 2506 vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.