Apertus 8B vs Devstral Small vs Qwen Flash
Qwen Flash comes out ahead, 68 to 57 and 56 on our weighted score, though Apertus 8B is 9% cheaper per token.
Swiss AI
Apertus 8B
56/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.20
- Context66K
Mistral AIDevstral Small
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Flash
68/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.40
- Context1M
Qwen Flash is our pick
Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Devstral Small (57) and Apertus 8B (56). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Apertus 8B wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceApertus 8BApertus 8B $0.125 · Qwen Flash $0.138 · Devstral Small $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen FlashQwen Flash 1,000,000 · Devstral Small 128,000 · Apertus 8B 65,536 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsApertus 8B: Text · Devstral Small: Text · Qwen Flash: Text
- Self-hostingApertus 8B and Devstral SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Apertus 8B | Devstral Small | Qwen Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 93 | 89 | 91 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 25 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 12 | 24 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 56/100 | 57/100 | 68/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Apertus 8BSwiss AI | Devstral SmallMistral AI | Qwen FlashAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.05 (best) |
| Output | $0.20 (best) | $0.30 | $0.40 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.125 (best) | $0.15 | $0.138 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | devstral-small-2507 | qwen-flash |
| API providers | 1 | 2 | 6 (best) |
| Released | Sep 2, 2025 | Jul 10, 2025 | Jul 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2025 | May 2025 | Apr 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Apertus 8B$1.40
- Devstral Small$1.60
- Qwen Flash$1.30
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Apertus 8B, Devstral Small or Qwen Flash?
Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Devstral Small (57) and Apertus 8B (56). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Apertus 8B wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Apertus 8B, Devstral Small or Qwen Flash?
Apertus 8B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen Flash costs $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Devstral Small costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.125 per million tokens for Apertus 8B versus $0.138 for Qwen Flash (1.1× as much) and $0.15 for Devstral Small (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Apertus 8B has not been scored yet, Devstral Small has not been scored yet and Qwen Flash has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Apertus 8B, Devstral Small and Qwen Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Devstral Small and 65,536 for Apertus 8B. Maximum output per response: Apertus 8B up to 8,192, Devstral Small up to 128,000, Qwen Flash up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Apertus 8B accepts text; Devstral Small accepts text; Qwen Flash accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Apertus 8B and Devstral Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Apertus 8B is the newest, released Sep 2, 2025. Qwen Flash came out Jul 28, 2025; Devstral Small came out Jul 10, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Apertus 8B Sep 2025, Devstral Small May 2025, Qwen Flash Apr 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
