Aya Expanse 8B vs Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct vs Qwen-VL OCR
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct comes out ahead, 25 to 15 and 0 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
CohereAya Expanse 8B
0/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context8K
- Our pick
NVIDIANemotron Mini 4B Instruct
25/100- ECI—
- PriceFree / Free
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen-VL OCR
15/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct is our pick
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 25/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (15) and Aya Expanse 8B (0). It leads on context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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 priceNemotron Mini 4B InstructNemotron Mini 4B Instruct Free · Qwen-VL OCR $0.72 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Aya Expanse 8B unpriced
- Longest contextNemotron Mini 4B InstructNemotron Mini 4B Instruct 128,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 · Aya Expanse 8B 8,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRAya Expanse 8B: Text · Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct: Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 8B and Nemotron Mini 4B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 8B | Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct | Qwen-VL OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 0 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 40% | 0 | 24 | 1 |
| Overall | 100% | 0/100 | 25/100 | 15/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. 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 8BCohere | Nemotron Mini 4B InstructNVIDIA | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | Free (best) | $0.72 |
| Output | — | Free (best) | $0.72 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | Free (best) | $0.72 |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Official Nvidia API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 8,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 34,096 tokens |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 8,192 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 | — | nvidia/nemotron-mini-4b-instruct | qwen-vl-ocr |
| API providers | — | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | Aug 21, 2024 | Oct 28, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | 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 8B—
- Nemotron Mini 4B InstructFree
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 8B, Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct or Qwen-VL OCR?
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 25/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (15) and Aya Expanse 8B (0). It leads on context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Aya Expanse 8B, Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct or Qwen-VL OCR?
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct is cheaper at Free input / Free output per million tokens (official Nvidia API price). Qwen-VL OCR costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct is listed as free. Aya Expanse 8B has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Aya Expanse 8B has not been scored yet, Nemotron Mini 4B 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 8B, Nemotron Mini 4B 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 8B and Qwen-VL OCR does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct has the largest context window at 128,000 tokens, against 34,096 for Qwen-VL OCR and 8,000 for Aya Expanse 8B. Maximum output per response: Aya Expanse 8B up to 4,000, Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct up to 8,192, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 8B accepts text; Nemotron Mini 4B 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 8B and Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct 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 8B came out Oct 24, 2024; Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct came out Aug 21, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: 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.
