Aya Expanse 32B vs Codestral vs Qwen-VL OCR
Codestral comes out ahead, 48 to 36 and 33 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
CohereAya Expanse 32B
33/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
- Our pick
Mistral AICodestral
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $0.90
- Context256K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen-VL OCR
36/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
Codestral is our pick
Codestral is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (36) and Aya Expanse 32B (33). It leads on price and context window. 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 priceCodestralCodestral $0.45 · Qwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextCodestralCodestral 256,000 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRAya Expanse 32B: Text · Codestral: Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 32B and CodestralPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 32B | Codestral | Qwen-VL OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 56 | 66 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 36 | 1 |
| Overall | 100% | 33/100 | 48/100 | 36/100 |
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 | Aya Expanse 32BCohere | CodestralMistral AI | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 | $0.30 (best) | $0.72 |
| Output | $1.50 | $0.90 | $0.72 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $0.45 (best) | $0.72 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) | 34,096 tokens |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 4,096 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | c4ai-aya-expanse-32b | codestral-latest | qwen-vl-ocr |
| API providers | 2 | 3 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | May 29, 2024 | Oct 28, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Oct 2024 | 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.
- Aya Expanse 32B$8.00
- Codestral$4.80
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 32B, Codestral or Qwen-VL OCR?
Codestral is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (36) and Aya Expanse 32B (33). It leads on price and context window. 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, Aya Expanse 32B, Codestral or Qwen-VL OCR?
Codestral is cheaper at $0.30 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen-VL OCR costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Aya Expanse 32B costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.45 per million tokens for Codestral versus $0.72 for Qwen-VL OCR (1.6× as much) and $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Aya Expanse 32B has not been scored yet, Codestral has not been scored yet and Qwen-VL OCR has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aya Expanse 32B, Codestral and Qwen-VL OCR yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Aya Expanse 32B and Qwen-VL OCR does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Codestral has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Aya Expanse 32B and 34,096 for Qwen-VL OCR. Maximum output per response: Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000, Codestral up to 4,096, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 32B accepts text; Codestral accepts text; Qwen-VL OCR accepts text and images. Qwen-VL OCR handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Aya Expanse 32B and Codestral publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen-VL OCR is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen-VL OCR is the newest, released Oct 28, 2024. Aya Expanse 32B came out Oct 24, 2024; Codestral came out May 29, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Codestral Oct 2024, Qwen-VL OCR 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.
