LFM2 24B A2B vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Qwen3.5 4B
Qwen3.5 4B comes out ahead, 78 to 72 and 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Liquid AILFM2 24B A2B
58/100- ECI—
- Price$0.03 / $0.12
- Context33K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.215
- Context262K
- Our pickAlibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.5 4B
78/100- ECI—
- Price$0.04 / $0.07
- Context262K
Qwen3.5 4B is our pick
Qwen3.5 4B is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72) and LFM2 24B A2B (58). It leads on inputs & features. 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 priceQwen3.5 4BQwen3.5 4B $0.048 · LFM2 24B A2B $0.052 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Qwen3.5 4BQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Qwen3.5 4B 262,144 · LFM2 24B A2B 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 4BLFM2 24B A2B: Text · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Qwen3.5 4B: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingLFM2 24B A2B and Qwen3.5 4BPublishes downloadable weights (LFM Open License v1.0 and Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | LFM2 24B A2B | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) | Qwen3.5 4B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 50 | 70 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 37 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 58/100 | 72/100 | 78/100 |
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 | LFM2 24B A2BLiquid AI | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | — | 55.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.03 | $0.022 (best) | $0.04 |
| Output | $0.12 | $0.215 | $0.07 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.052 | $0.07 | $0.048 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 1 providers | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 32,768 tokens | 81,920 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenLFM Open License v1.0 | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 5 (best) |
| Released | Feb 24, 2026 | Oct 15, 2025 | Mar 2, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- LFM2 24B A2B$0.54
- Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
- Qwen3.5 4B$0.54
Which should you choose?
Which is better: LFM2 24B A2B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Qwen3.5 4B?
Qwen3.5 4B is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72) and LFM2 24B A2B (58). It leads on inputs & features. 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, LFM2 24B A2B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Qwen3.5 4B?
Qwen3.5 4B is cheaper at $0.04 input / $0.07 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). LFM2 24B A2B costs $0.03 input / $0.12 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 $0.048 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 4B versus $0.052 for LFM2 24B A2B (1.1× as much) and $0.07 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. LFM2 24B A2B has not been scored yet, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet and Qwen3.5 4B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for LFM2 24B A2B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Qwen3.5 4B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Qwen3.5 4B have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 32,768 for LFM2 24B A2B. Maximum output per response: LFM2 24B A2B up to 32,768, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Qwen3.5 4B up to 81,920 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
LFM2 24B A2B accepts text; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Qwen3.5 4B accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 4B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
LFM2 24B A2B and Qwen3.5 4B publishes its weights (LFM Open License v1.0 and Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.5 4B is the newest, released Mar 2, 2026. LFM2 24B A2B came out Feb 24, 2026; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 2025.
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.
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