Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3.8 Flash
Qwen3.8 Flash leads the LLM Stats Score 49.6 to 18.4. Qwen3.8 Flash is 1.7x cheaper per token.
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3.8 Flash leads the overall LLM Stats Score 49.6 to 18.4, ranking #16 overall.
In the 7 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3.8 Flash wins 7; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3.8 Flash is roughly 1.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3.8 Flash also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Qwen3.8 Flash
- overall performance matters — it scores 49.6 and ranks #16 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and agents — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 7 of 7 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 1.7x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
50 reported for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking · 22 for Qwen3.8 Flash
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Flash is better at 7 benchmarks (CharXiv-R, ERQA, GPQA, LiveCodeBench v6, LVBench, MathVision, RealWorldQA).
Qwen3.8 Flash significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.20/1M tokens) is 1.3x more expensive than Qwen3.8 Flash ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.99/1M tokens) is 2.1x more expensive than Qwen3.8 Flash ($0.47/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is more expensive than Qwen3.8 Flash.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.8 Flash has 94.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking, making it 303.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3.8 Flash accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's 131,072 tokens. Qwen3.8 Flash can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is limited to 32,768 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking and Qwen3.8 Flash support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Qwen3.8 Flash
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen3.8 Flash uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22, while Qwen3.8 Flash was released on 2026-08-26.
Qwen3.8 Flash is 11 months newer than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
Aug 26, 2026
5 days ago
11mo newerKnowledge 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 30B A3B Thinking is available from Novita, DeepInfra. Qwen3.8 Flash is available from Novita.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Qwen3.8 Flash
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking and Qwen3.8 Flash side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3.8 Flash.