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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Baichuan M2 32B vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 45 to 40 and 16 on our weighted score.

  1. Baichuan

    Baichuan M2 32B

    Released Aug 13, 2025

    16/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.07 / $0.07
    • Context131K
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    45/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
  3. ByteDance Seed

    Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

    Released Aug 20, 2025

    40/100
    • ECI—
    • Price—
    • Context524K
01 — Verdict

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is our pick

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40) and Baichuan M2 32B (16). It leads on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins 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 priceBaichuan M2 32BBaichuan M2 32B $0.07 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
  • Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Baichuan M2 32B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Baichuan M2 32B: Text · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingBaichuan M2 32B and Seed-OSS-36B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0 and Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightBaichuan M2 32BQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct
Inputs & features60%105035
Context window40%253749
Overall100%16/10045/10040/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Baichuan M2 32B vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationBaichuan M2 32BBaichuanQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)Seed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions——71.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics——67.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.07$0.022 (best)—
Output$0.07 (best)$0.215—
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.07 (best)$0.07—
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate—
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 1 providers—
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens524,288 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens32,768 tokens524,288 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingNoYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0ProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model ID———
API providers11—
ReleasedAug 13, 2025Oct 15, 2025Aug 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoff——Jul 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Baichuan M2 32B$0.84
  • Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
  • Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Baichuan M2 32B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40) and Baichuan M2 32B (16). It leads on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins 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, Baichuan M2 32B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?

Baichuan M2 32B is cheaper at $0.07 input / $0.07 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) costs $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.07 per million tokens for Baichuan M2 32B versus $0.07 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (1× as much). Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no published per-token price.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Baichuan M2 32B has not been scored yet, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Baichuan M2 32B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Baichuan M2 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has the largest context window at 524,288 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and 131,072 for Baichuan M2 32B. Maximum output per response: Baichuan M2 32B up to 131,072, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Baichuan M2 32B accepts text; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Baichuan M2 32B and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct publishes its weights (Apache-2.0 and Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct came out Aug 20, 2025; Baichuan M2 32B came out Aug 13, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct Jul 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 Nov 2, 2026.