Aya Expanse 32B vs Qwen Plus vs Sonar
Qwen Plus comes out ahead, 53 to 33 and 30 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
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $1.20
- Context1M
PerplexitySonar
30/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context128K
Qwen Plus is our pick
Qwen Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Aya Expanse 32B (33) and Sonar (30). It leads on price, inputs & features 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 priceQwen PlusQwen Plus $0.60 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 · Sonar $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen PlusQwen Plus 1,000,000 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 · Sonar 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsAya Expanse 32B: Text · Qwen Plus: Text · Sonar: Text
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 32BPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 32B | Qwen Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 56 | 60 | 50 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 35 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 60 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 33/100 | 53/100 | 30/100 |
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 | Qwen PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | SonarPerplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 | $0.40 (best) | $1.00 |
| Output | $1.50 | $1.20 | $1.00 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $0.60 (best) | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Alibaba API | Official Perplexity API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens (best) | 4,096 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 | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | c4ai-aya-expanse-32b | qwen-plus | sonar |
| API providers | 2 | 9 (best) | 6 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | Jan 25, 2024 | Jan 1, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 2024 | Sep 1, 2025 |
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
- Qwen Plus$6.40
- Sonar$12.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 32B, Qwen Plus or Sonar?
Qwen Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Aya Expanse 32B (33) and Sonar (30). It leads on price, inputs & features 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, Qwen Plus or Sonar?
Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.20 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); Sonar costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.60 per million tokens for Qwen Plus versus $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (1.3× as much) and $1.00 for Sonar (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, Qwen Plus has not been scored yet and Sonar has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aya Expanse 32B, Qwen Plus and Sonar 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 Sonar does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Aya Expanse 32B and 128,000 for Sonar. Maximum output per response: Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000, Qwen Plus up to 32,768, Sonar up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 32B accepts text; Qwen Plus accepts text; Sonar accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Aya Expanse 32B publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen Plus and Sonar is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Aya Expanse 32B is the newest, released Oct 24, 2024. Qwen Plus came out Jan 25, 2024; Sonar came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Apr 2024, Sonar Sep 1, 2025.
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.
