Aya Expanse 32B vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct vs Qwen-VL OCR
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 39, Qwen-VL OCR 36, Aya Expanse 32B 33). The right pick depends on what you value most.
CohereAya Expanse 32B
33/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct
39/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $2.00
- Context131K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen-VL OCR
36/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 39/100, Qwen-VL OCR 36/100, Aya Expanse 32B 33/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen-VL OCR on price and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct for long inputs. 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-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct $0.875 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructQwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 131,072 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRAya Expanse 32B: Text · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct: Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 32B and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 32B | Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct | Qwen-VL OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 56 | 53 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 24 | 1 |
| Overall | 100% | 33/100 | 39/100 | 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 | Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 (best) | $0.50 (best) | $0.72 |
| Output | $1.50 | $2.00 | $0.72 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $0.875 | $0.72 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 34,096 tokens |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| 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 | qwen3-next-80b-a3b-instruct | qwen-vl-ocr |
| API providers | 2 | 13 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | Sep 2025 | Oct 28, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 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.
- Aya Expanse 32B$8.00
- Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct$9.00
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 32B, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct or Qwen-VL OCR?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 39/100, Qwen-VL OCR 36/100, Aya Expanse 32B 33/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen-VL OCR on price and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct for long inputs. 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, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct or Qwen-VL OCR?
Qwen-VL OCR is cheaper at $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); Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct costs $0.50 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.72 per million tokens for Qwen-VL OCR versus $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (1× as much) and $0.875 for Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct (1.2× 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, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 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, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 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?
Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 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, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct up to 32,768, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 32B accepts text; Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 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 Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen-VL OCR is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 2025. Qwen-VL OCR came out Oct 28, 2024; Aya Expanse 32B came out Oct 24, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct Apr 2025, 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.
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