Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Ministral 3 3B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 72, Ministral 3 3B 72, Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B 64). The right pick depends on what you value most.
NVIDIANemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
64/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.24
- Context262K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.215
- Context262K
Mistral AIMinistral 3 3B
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 72/100, Ministral 3 3B 72/100, Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) on price. 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 · Ministral 3 3B $0.10 · Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B $0.105 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameNemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B 262,144 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Ministral 3 3B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Ministral 3 3BNemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B: Text · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Ministral 3 3B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B and Ministral 3 3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) | Ministral 3 3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 92 | 100 | 93 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 50 | 60 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 37 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 72/100 | 72/100 |
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 | Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNVIDIA | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen) | Ministral 3 3BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.06 | $0.022 (best) | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.24 | $0.215 | $0.10 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.01 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.105 | $0.07 (best) | $0.10 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 15 providers | Median of 1 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — | ministral-3b-2512 |
| API providers | 16 (best) | 1 | 11 |
| Released | Dec 15, 2025 | Oct 15, 2025 | Dec 2, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 25, 2025 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B$1.08
- Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
- Ministral 3 3B$1.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Ministral 3 3B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 72/100, Ministral 3 3B 72/100, Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) on price. 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, Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Ministral 3 3B?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Ministral 3 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B costs $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (median across 15 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.07 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) versus $0.10 for Ministral 3 3B (1.4× as much) and $0.105 for Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B has not been scored yet, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet and Ministral 3 3B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Ministral 3 3B 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?
Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Ministral 3 3B share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B up to 262,144, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Ministral 3 3B up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B accepts text; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Ministral 3 3B accepts text and images. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B and Ministral 3 3B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B is the newest, released Dec 15, 2025. Ministral 3 3B came out Dec 2, 2025; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B Jun 25, 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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