MiniCPM5-2B vs Qwen3.8 Flash Next vs Qwen3.8 Omni Flash
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash comes out ahead, 79 to 70 and 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
OpenBMB
MiniCPM5-2B
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.124 / $0.743
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Flash Next
70/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $0.50
- Context262K
- Our pickAlibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash
79/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.47
- Context1M
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash is our pick
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 79/100 against Qwen3.8 Flash Next (70) and MiniCPM5-2B (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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 priceQwen3.8 Omni FlashQwen3.8 Omni Flash $0.23 · Qwen3.8 Flash Next $0.275 · MiniCPM5-2B $0.279 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.8 Omni FlashQwen3.8 Omni Flash 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Flash Next 262,144 · MiniCPM5-2B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 Omni FlashMiniCPM5-2B: Text · Qwen3.8 Flash Next: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.8 Omni Flash: Text, Images, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingMiniCPM5-2B and Qwen3.8 Flash NextPublishes downloadable weights (apache-2.0 and qwen-community-1.0)
| Measure | Weight | MiniCPM5-2B | Qwen3.8 Flash Next | Qwen3.8 Omni Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 76 | 76 | 80 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 37 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 70/100 | 79/100 |
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 | MiniCPM5-2BOpenBMB | Qwen3.8 Flash NextAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.8 Omni FlashAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.124 (best) | $0.20 | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.743 | $0.50 | $0.47 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.016 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.279 | $0.275 | $0.23 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 5 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Openapache-2.0 | Openqwen-community-1.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | qwen3.8-omni-flash |
| API providers | 1 | 5 | 10 (best) |
| Released | Sep 6, 2026 | Aug 27, 2026 | Sep 17, 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.
- MiniCPM5-2B$2.73
- Qwen3.8 Flash Next$3.00
- Qwen3.8 Omni Flash$2.44
Which should you choose?
Which is better: MiniCPM5-2B, Qwen3.8 Flash Next or Qwen3.8 Omni Flash?
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 79/100 against Qwen3.8 Flash Next (70) and MiniCPM5-2B (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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, MiniCPM5-2B, Qwen3.8 Flash Next or Qwen3.8 Omni Flash?
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.47 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3.8 Flash Next costs $0.20 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); MiniCPM5-2B costs $0.124 input / $0.743 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.23 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Omni Flash versus $0.275 for Qwen3.8 Flash Next (1.2× as much) and $0.279 for MiniCPM5-2B (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. MiniCPM5-2B has not been scored yet, Qwen3.8 Flash Next has not been scored yet and Qwen3.8 Omni Flash has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniCPM5-2B, Qwen3.8 Flash Next and Qwen3.8 Omni Flash 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?
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 Flash Next and 131,072 for MiniCPM5-2B. Maximum output per response: MiniCPM5-2B up to 131,072, Qwen3.8 Flash Next up to 131,072, Qwen3.8 Omni Flash up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
MiniCPM5-2B accepts text; Qwen3.8 Flash Next accepts text, images and video; Qwen3.8 Omni Flash accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.8 Omni Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
MiniCPM5-2B and Qwen3.8 Flash Next publishes its weights (apache-2.0 and qwen-community-1.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.8 Omni Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Omni Flash is the newest, released Sep 17, 2026. MiniCPM5-2B came out Sep 6, 2026; Qwen3.8 Flash Next came out Aug 27, 2026.
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.
