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Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is 1.8x cheaper per token.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct outperforms in 40 benchmarks (AI2D, AIME 2025, Arena-Hard v2, BFCL-v3, BLINK, CC-OCR, CharadesSTA, CharXiv-R, Creative Writing v3, DocVQAtest, ERQA, HMMT25, IFEval, Include, InfoVQAtest, LiveBench 20241125, LiveCodeBench v6, LVBench, MathVision, MathVista-Mini, MMBench-V1.1, MMLU, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX, MMLU-Redux, MM-MT-Bench, MMMU-Pro, MMStar, Multi-IF, OCRBench, OCRBench-V2 (en), OCRBench-V2 (zh), ODinW, OSWorld, RealWorldQA, ScreenSpot, ScreenSpot Pro, SuperGPQA, VideoMMMU, WritingBench), while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is better at 2 benchmarks (Hallusion Bench, MuirBench). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

On price, Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is roughly 1.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 40 of 42 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

  • cost matters — it's about 1.8x cheaper per token

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Benchmark wins
40 of 42
2 of 42
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
$1.49 / M
$1.00 / M
Context window
262,144
262,144
Released
Sep 2025
Sep 2025
License
Apache 2.0
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

42 benchmarks

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct outperforms in 40 benchmarks (AI2D, AIME 2025, Arena-Hard v2, BFCL-v3, BLINK, CC-OCR, CharadesSTA, CharXiv-R, Creative Writing v3, DocVQAtest, ERQA, HMMT25, IFEval, Include, InfoVQAtest, LiveBench 20241125, LiveCodeBench v6, LVBench, MathVision, MathVista-Mini, MMBench-V1.1, MMLU, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX, MMLU-Redux, MM-MT-Bench, MMMU-Pro, MMStar, Multi-IF, OCRBench, OCRBench-V2 (en), OCRBench-V2 (zh), ODinW, OSWorld, RealWorldQA, ScreenSpot, ScreenSpot Pro, SuperGPQA, VideoMMMU, WritingBench), while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is better at 2 benchmarks (Hallusion Bench, MuirBench).

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking costs less

For input processing, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.30/1M tokens) is 3.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($1.49/1M tokens) is 1.5x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking ($1.00/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.49
Best providerDeepinfra
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$1.00
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

232.0B diff

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has 232.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking, making it 5800.0% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
236.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
4.0Bparameters
236.0B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
4.0B
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Both models have the same input context window of 262,144 tokens. Both models can generate responses up to 262,144 tokens.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Both models were released on 2025-09-22.

They likely represent similar generations of model development.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

11 months ago

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

11 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita. Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is available from DeepInfra.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.49/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking.

Which is better, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct or Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking in benchmarks?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 97.1%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, MMLU-Redux: 92.2%, OCRBench: 92.0%, MMBench-V1.1: 89.9%. Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 94.2%, ScreenSpot: 92.9%, MMBench-V1.1: 86.7%, MMLU-Redux: 86.0%, AI2D: 84.9%.

Is Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct cheaper than Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is 3.0x cheaper for input tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.30/M input and $1.49/M output via deepinfra. Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking costs $0.10/M input and $1.00/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports 262K tokens and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking?

Key differences include input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.10/M). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.