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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) vs Qwen-VL OCR

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen-VL OCR 36, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 36). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)

    Released Jan 2024

    36/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $1.40
    • Context8K
    Full specs Remove Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen-VL OCR

    Released Oct 28, 2024

    36/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.72 / $0.72
    • Context34K
    Full specs Remove Qwen-VL OCR

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen-VL OCR 36/100, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 36/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen-VL OCR on price and Qwen-VL OCR for long inputs. 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 priceQwen-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) $0.725 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR 34,096 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 8,192 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRQwen Plus Character (Japanese): Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen Plus Character (Japanese)Qwen-VL OCR
Price50%5757
Inputs & features30%2525
Context window20%01
Overall100%36/10036/100

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 Plus Character (Japanese) vs Qwen-VL OCR specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen Plus Character (Japanese)Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50 (best)$0.72
Output$1.40$0.72 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.725$0.72 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window8,192 tokens34,096 tokens (best)
Max output512 tokens4,096 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesNo
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen-plus-character-jaqwen-vl-ocr
API providers11
ReleasedJan 2024Oct 28, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Apr 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.

  • Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)$7.80
  • Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or Qwen-VL OCR?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen-VL OCR 36/100, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 36/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen-VL OCR on price and Qwen-VL OCR for long inputs. 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 Plus Character (Japanese) or Qwen-VL OCR?

Qwen-VL OCR is cheaper at $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) costs $0.50 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.72 per million tokens for Qwen-VL OCR versus $0.725 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) (1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) has not been scored yet and Qwen-VL OCR has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and Qwen-VL OCR yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen-VL OCR does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen-VL OCR has the largest context window at 34,096 tokens, against 8,192 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese). Maximum output per response: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) up to 512, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) accepts text; Qwen-VL OCR accepts text and images. Qwen-VL OCR handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and Qwen-VL OCR are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen-VL OCR is the newest, released Oct 28, 2024. Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) came out Jan 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) Apr 2024, Qwen-VL OCR Apr 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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