Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking vs Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is 5.4x cheaper per token.
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking outperforms in 37 benchmarks (AI2D, AIME 2025, BFCL-v3, BLINK, CC-OCR, CharadesSTA, CharXiv-R, DocVQAtest, ERQA, Hallusion Bench, 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, MuirBench, OCRBench-V2 (en), OCRBench-V2 (zh), OSWorld, RealWorldQA, ScreenSpot, ScreenSpot Pro, SuperGPQA, VideoMMMU, WritingBench), while Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (OCRBench, ODinW, SimpleQA). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is roughly 5.4x 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 Thinking
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 37 of 40 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 5.4x cheaper per token
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking outperforms in 37 benchmarks (AI2D, AIME 2025, BFCL-v3, BLINK, CC-OCR, CharadesSTA, CharXiv-R, DocVQAtest, ERQA, Hallusion Bench, 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, MuirBench, OCRBench-V2 (en), OCRBench-V2 (zh), OSWorld, RealWorldQA, ScreenSpot, ScreenSpot Pro, SuperGPQA, VideoMMMU, WritingBench), while Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (OCRBench, ODinW, SimpleQA).
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($0.45/1M tokens) is 4.5x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($3.49/1M tokens) is 5.8x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking has 232.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct, making it 5800.0% larger.
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.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking and Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Qwen3 VL 4B 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
Both models were released on 2025-09-22.
They likely represent similar generations of model development.
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
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.
Provider Availability
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is available from DeepInfra, Novita. Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is available from DeepInfra.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking and Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking vs Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct.