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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Aya Expanse 32B vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct

Ministral 8B Instruct comes out ahead, 57 to 45 and 33 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Cohere

    Aya Expanse 32B

    Released Oct 24, 2024

    33/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Aya Expanse 32B
  2. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    57/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct

    Released Nov 12, 2024

    45/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.43 / $0.60
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct
01 — Verdict

Ministral 8B Instruct is our pick

Ministral 8B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct (45) and Aya Expanse 32B (33). It leads 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 priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct $0.473 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMinistral 8B Instruct and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-InstructMinistral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct 131,072 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsAya Expanse 32B: Text · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightAya Expanse 32BMinistral 8B InstructQwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct
Price50%568965
Inputs & features30%02525
Context window20%242424
Overall100%33/10057/10045/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Aya Expanse 32B vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationAya Expanse 32BCohereMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIQwen2.5-Coder-32B-InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—27.2%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.15 (best)$0.43
Output$1.50$0.15 (best)$0.60
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.75$0.15 (best)$0.473
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 1 providersMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)
Max output4,000 tokens8,192 tokens (best)8,192 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingNoYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenCC-BY-NC-4.0OpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model IDc4ai-aya-expanse-32b——
API providers214 (best)
ReleasedOct 24, 2024Oct 16, 2024Nov 12, 2024
Knowledge cutoff———
03 — Cost

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
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct$5.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Aya Expanse 32B, Ministral 8B Instruct or Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct?

Ministral 8B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct (45) and Aya Expanse 32B (33). It leads 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, Aya Expanse 32B, Ministral 8B Instruct or Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct costs $0.43 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers); 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.473 for Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct (3.2× as much) and $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (5× 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, Ministral 8B Instruct has not been scored yet and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aya Expanse 32B, Ministral 8B Instruct and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Aya Expanse 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Ministral 8B Instruct and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for Aya Expanse 32B. Maximum output per response: Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Aya Expanse 32B accepts text; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0 and Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct is the newest, released Nov 12, 2024. Aya Expanse 32B came out Oct 24, 2024; Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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