Model Comparison
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 4.0x cheaper per token.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
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, Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 2.0x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 9.9x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.99/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking has 27.2B more parameters than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct, making it 715.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Phi-3.5-mini-instruct's 128,000 tokens. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is limited to 32,768 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi-3.5-mini-instruct does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is licensed under MIT, 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.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct was released on 2024-08-23, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 13 months newer than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.
Aug 23, 2024
1.8 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
8 months ago
1.1yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is available from Azure. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
View detailsMicrosoft
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Phi-3.5-mini-instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.