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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Flash vs Voxtral Small 24B 2507 vs Apertus 8B

Qwen Flash comes out ahead, 68 to 56 and 55 on our weighted score, though Apertus 8B is 9% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Flash

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    68/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context1M
  2. Mistral AI

    Voxtral Small 24B 2507

    Released Jul 15, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context33K
  3. Swiss AI

    Apertus 8B

    Released Sep 2, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.10 / $0.20
    • Context66K
01 — Verdict

Qwen Flash is our pick

Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Apertus 8B (56) and Voxtral Small 24B 2507 (55). It leads on context window. Apertus 8B wins 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 priceApertus 8BApertus 8B $0.125 · Qwen Flash $0.138 · Voxtral Small 24B 2507 $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen FlashQwen Flash 1,000,000 · Apertus 8B 65,536 · Voxtral Small 24B 2507 32,768 tokens
  • Widest inputsVoxtral Small 24B 2507Qwen Flash: Text · Voxtral Small 24B 2507: Text, Audio · Apertus 8B: Text
  • Self-hostingVoxtral Small 24B 2507 and Apertus 8BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0 and Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen FlashVoxtral Small 24B 2507Apertus 8B
Price50%918993
Inputs & features30%353525
Context window20%60012
Overall100%68/10055/10056/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. 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.

Qwen Flash vs Voxtral Small 24B 2507 vs Apertus 8B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen FlashAlibaba (Qwen)Voxtral Small 24B 2507Mistral AIApertus 8BSwiss AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.10$0.10
Output$0.40$0.30$0.20 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.138$0.15$0.125 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)32,768 tokens65,536 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens (best)32,768 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache 2.0OpenApache-2.0
API model IDqwen-flashvoxtral-small-latest—
API providers67 (best)1
ReleasedJul 28, 2025Jul 15, 2025Sep 2, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024—Sep 2025
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.

  • Qwen Flash$1.30
  • Voxtral Small 24B 2507$1.60
  • Apertus 8B$1.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Flash, Voxtral Small 24B 2507 or Apertus 8B?

Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Apertus 8B (56) and Voxtral Small 24B 2507 (55). It leads on context window. Apertus 8B wins 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, Qwen Flash, Voxtral Small 24B 2507 or Apertus 8B?

Apertus 8B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen Flash costs $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Voxtral Small 24B 2507 costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.125 per million tokens for Apertus 8B versus $0.138 for Qwen Flash (1.1× as much) and $0.15 for Voxtral Small 24B 2507 (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen Flash has not been scored yet, Voxtral Small 24B 2507 has not been scored yet and Apertus 8B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Flash, Voxtral Small 24B 2507 and Apertus 8B 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?

Qwen Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 65,536 for Apertus 8B and 32,768 for Voxtral Small 24B 2507. Maximum output per response: Qwen Flash up to 32,768, Voxtral Small 24B 2507 up to 32,768, Apertus 8B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen Flash accepts text; Voxtral Small 24B 2507 accepts text and audio; Apertus 8B accepts text. Voxtral Small 24B 2507 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Voxtral Small 24B 2507 and Apertus 8B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0 and Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Apertus 8B is the newest, released Sep 2, 2025. Qwen Flash came out Jul 28, 2025; Voxtral Small 24B 2507 came out Jul 15, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Flash Apr 2024, Apertus 8B Sep 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 Oct 4, 2026.