Aya Vision 8B vs Magistral Medium vs QVQ Max
QVQ Max comes out ahead, 46 to 31 and 15 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
CohereAya Vision 8B
15/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context16K
Mistral AIMagistral Medium
31/100- ECI—
- Price$2.00 / $5.00
- Context128K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)QVQ Max
46/100- ECI—
- Price$1.20 / $4.80
- Context131K
QVQ Max is our pick
QVQ Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Magistral Medium (31) and Aya Vision 8B (15). It leads on inputs & features. 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 priceQVQ MaxQVQ Max $2.10 · Magistral Medium $2.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Aya Vision 8B unpriced
- Longest contextQVQ MaxQVQ Max 131,072 · Magistral Medium 128,000 · Aya Vision 8B 16,000 tokens
- Widest inputsAya Vision 8B and QVQ MaxAya Vision 8B: Text, Images · Magistral Medium: Text · QVQ Max: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAya Vision 8BPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Vision 8B | Magistral Medium | QVQ Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 25 | 35 | 60 |
| Context window | 40% | 0 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 15/100 | 31/100 | 46/100 |
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 Vision 8BCohere | Magistral MediumMistral AI | QVQ MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $2.00 | $1.20 (best) |
| Output | — | $5.00 | $4.80 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $2.75 | $2.10 (best) |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 16,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | magistral-medium-latest | qvq-max |
| API providers | — | 4 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Mar 4, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 | Mar 25, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jun 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 Vision 8B—
- Magistral Medium$30.00
- QVQ Max$21.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Vision 8B, Magistral Medium or QVQ Max?
QVQ Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Magistral Medium (31) and Aya Vision 8B (15). It leads on inputs & features. 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 Vision 8B, Magistral Medium or QVQ Max?
QVQ Max is cheaper at $1.20 input / $4.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Magistral Medium costs $2.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.10 per million tokens for QVQ Max versus $2.75 for Magistral Medium (1.3× as much). Aya Vision 8B has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Aya Vision 8B has not been scored yet, Magistral Medium has not been scored yet and QVQ Max has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aya Vision 8B, Magistral Medium and QVQ Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Aya Vision 8B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
QVQ Max has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Magistral Medium and 16,000 for Aya Vision 8B. Maximum output per response: Aya Vision 8B up to 4,000, Magistral Medium up to 16,384, QVQ Max up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Vision 8B accepts text and images; Magistral Medium accepts text; QVQ Max accepts text and images. Aya Vision 8B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Aya Vision 8B publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Magistral Medium and QVQ Max is proprietary.
Which is newer?
QVQ Max is the newest, released Mar 25, 2025. Magistral Medium came out Mar 17, 2025; Aya Vision 8B came out Mar 4, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Magistral Medium Jun 2025, QVQ Max 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.
