Compare / Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 vs Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 vs Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 Released 25 Jul 2025 · $0.30 in · $3.00 out
AlibabaQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct Released 23 Sep 2025 · $0.30 in · $1.50 out
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 wins 73 too close to callQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct wins 6

Of the 16 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc).

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct? The short answer

Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 12.7 against 9.9). Pick Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct if cost matters more: it costs 38% less per token.

  • Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct is cheaper: $0.60 against $0.97 per million tokens, 38% less.
  • Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 12.7 against 9.9.
  • Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct is newer: released 23 Sep 2025, against 25 Jul 2025 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 does better for reasoning and knowledge; Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct for writing.

Head to head

12.7
Intelligence Index
9.9
$0.97
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.60
131,072
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $3.00 out$0.30 in · $1.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.97$0.60
Cheapest host, blended$0.75 (Alibaba)$0.37 (DeepInfra, FP8)
Intelligence Index12.79.9
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens
Released25 Jul 202523 Sep 2025 (newer)
WeightsOpenOpen
Developer based inChinaChina

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 138 of 164 not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 117 of 198 146 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 122 of 188 93 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 92 of 152 124 of 152

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 122 of 387 measured 1,400 1,413
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 133 · 88 of 380 measured 1,404 1,440
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 133 · 146 of 385 measured 1,371 1,358
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 147 · 172 of 243 measured 12.7 9.9
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 114 · 152 of 231 measured 79.0% 71.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 122 · 176 of 242 measured 15.9% 6.6%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 139 · 96 of 230 measured 32.4 43.0
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 166 · 99 of 230 measured 30.0% 19.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 194 · 86 of 230 measured 0.31 0.36
Show all 16 results (7 more)
MeasureQwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 85 · 113 of 338 measured 1,466 1,440
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 142 · 111 of 387 measured 1,385 1,409
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 124 of 386 measured 1,377 1,387
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 101 · 125 of 195 measured 51.2% 42.7%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 179 of 233 measured 72.0% 32.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 116 · 140 of 190 measured 13.6% 6.8%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 101 · 122 of 193 measured 53.2% 35.1%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 better than Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 12.7 against 9.9). Pick Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct if cost matters more: it costs 38% less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct is cheaper: $0.60 against $0.97 per million tokens, 38% less.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 ranks 117 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 146 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct ranks 93 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 122 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 ranks 92 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 124 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Run Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 and Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct on your own prompt

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