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Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B)

Alibaba · released

Wins 0 of 7 areas

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Alibaba · released

Wins 5 of 7 areas

Coding · Reasoning · Images and charts · Long documents · Following instructions

Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B) is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is cheaper.

Scores updated · 51 tests both models report · How we compare

Where each one wins

Tests won in each of the seven areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.

Long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.

What it costs

Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct$0.18 to read · $0.70 to write$0.88Price from Alibaba's own price page
Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B)$0.18 to read · $2.10 to write$2.28Price from Alibaba's own price page

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs 61% less for the same work.

The biggest differences

The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.

Where Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B) pulls ahead

  • Recent programming contest problemsLiveCodeBench v6+19.3points aheadQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)58.6Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct39.3
  • Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+16.6points aheadQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)33.3Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct16.7
  • Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+15.2points aheadQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)57.9Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct42.7

Where Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct pulls ahead

  • Reads text in imagesOCRBench+7.7points aheadQwen3 VL 8B Instruct89.6Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B)81.9

Every test, side by side

All 51 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.

CodingQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)

Full coding ranking

AgentsEven

Full agents ranking

ReasoningQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)

Full reasoning ranking

FactsEven

Full facts ranking

Images and chartsQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)
  • MMMU-ProQwen3 VL Thinking (8B) by 9.347.356.6+9.3
  • OCRBenchQwen3 VL 8B Instruct by 7.789.681.9+7.7
  • CharXiv (RQ)Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B) by 6.646.453+6.6
  • MMStarQwen3 VL Thinking (8B) by 4.470.975.3+4.4
  • MathVistaQwen3 VL Thinking (8B) by 4.277.281.4+4.2
  • BLINKtie69.168.7tie
  • Video-MMEtie71.471.8tie

Full images and charts ranking

Long documentsQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)
  • AA-LCRQwen3 VL Thinking (8B) by 16.616.733.3+16.6

Full long documents ranking

Following instructionsQwen3 VL Thinking (8B)
  • IFBenchQwen3 VL Thinking (8B) by 7.632.339.9+7.6

Full following instructions ranking

Other results32 tests, not counted

Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.

Questions people ask

Which is better, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct or Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B)?

Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B) wins five of the seven areas where both have results: coding, reasoning, images and charts, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct wins none, but costs 61% less. They are level on agents and facts.

Which is better for coding?

Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B). It wins 3 of the 3 coding tests both models report; Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct wins none.

Which is cheaper?

Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs $0.18 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens; Qwen3 VL Thinking (8B) costs $0.18 and $2.10. That makes Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct about 61% cheaper for the same work.

How do you compare the two?

We use the 51 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 19 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 32 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.