Aya Expanse 8B vs Palmyra X4 vs Qwen-VL OCR
Palmyra X4 comes out ahead, 31 to 15 and 0 on our weighted score, though Qwen-VL OCR is 6.1× cheaper per token.
CohereAya Expanse 8B
0/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context8K
- Our pick
Writer
Palmyra X4
31/100- ECI—
- Price$2.50 / $10.00
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen-VL OCR
15/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
Palmyra X4 is our pick
Palmyra X4 is the better all-round choice, scoring 31/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (15) and Aya Expanse 8B (0). It leads on inputs & features and 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 priceQwen-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Palmyra X4 $4.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Aya Expanse 8B unpriced
- Longest contextPalmyra X4Palmyra X4 128,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 · Aya Expanse 8B 8,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRAya Expanse 8B: Text · Palmyra X4: Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 8BPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 8B | Palmyra X4 | Qwen-VL OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 0 | 35 | 25 |
| Context window | 40% | 0 | 24 | 1 |
| Overall | 100% | 0/100 | 31/100 | 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 | Palmyra X4Writer | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $2.50 | $0.72 (best) |
| Output | — | $10.00 | $0.72 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $4.38 | $0.72 (best) |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Median of 1 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 8,000 tokens | 128,000 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 | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | qwen-vl-ocr |
| API providers | — | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | Oct 9, 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—
- Palmyra X4$45.00
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 8B, Palmyra X4 or Qwen-VL OCR?
Palmyra X4 is the better all-round choice, scoring 31/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (15) and Aya Expanse 8B (0). It leads on inputs & features and 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, Palmyra X4 or Qwen-VL OCR?
Qwen-VL OCR is cheaper at $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Palmyra X4 costs $2.50 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.72 per million tokens for Qwen-VL OCR versus $4.38 for Palmyra X4 (6.1× as much). 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, Palmyra X4 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, Palmyra X4 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?
Palmyra X4 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, Palmyra X4 up to 4,096, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 8B accepts text; Palmyra X4 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 publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Palmyra X4 and 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; Palmyra X4 came out Oct 9, 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.
