Qwen Plus vs Qwen-VL OCR vs Sonar
Qwen Plus comes out ahead, 53 to 36 and 30 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $1.20
- Context1M
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen-VL OCR
36/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
PerplexitySonar
30/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context128K
Qwen Plus is our pick
Qwen Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (36) and Sonar (30). 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 priceQwen PlusQwen Plus $0.60 · Qwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Sonar $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen PlusQwen Plus 1,000,000 · Sonar 128,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRQwen Plus: Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images · Sonar: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen Plus | Qwen-VL OCR | Sonar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 60 | 57 | 50 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 25 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 1 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 36/100 | 30/100 |
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 | Qwen PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) | SonarPerplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 (best) | $0.72 | $1.00 |
| Output | $1.20 | $0.72 (best) | $1.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.60 (best) | $0.72 | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API | Official Perplexity API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 34,096 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen-plus | qwen-vl-ocr | sonar |
| API providers | 9 (best) | 1 | 6 |
| Released | Jan 25, 2024 | Oct 28, 2024 | Jan 1, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Apr 2024 | Sep 1, 2025 |
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$6.40
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
- Sonar$12.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen Plus, Qwen-VL OCR or Sonar?
Qwen Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Qwen-VL OCR (36) and Sonar (30). 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, Qwen Plus, Qwen-VL OCR or Sonar?
Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen-VL OCR costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Sonar costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.60 per million tokens for Qwen Plus versus $0.72 for Qwen-VL OCR (1.2× as much) and $1.00 for Sonar (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen Plus has not been scored yet, Qwen-VL OCR has not been scored yet and Sonar has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Plus, Qwen-VL OCR and Sonar yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen-VL OCR and Sonar does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Sonar and 34,096 for Qwen-VL OCR. Maximum output per response: Qwen Plus up to 32,768, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096, Sonar up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen Plus accepts text; Qwen-VL OCR accepts text and images; Sonar accepts text. Qwen-VL OCR handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen Plus, Qwen-VL OCR and Sonar are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen-VL OCR is the newest, released Oct 28, 2024. Qwen Plus came out Jan 25, 2024; Sonar came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Apr 2024, Qwen-VL OCR Apr 2024, Sonar Sep 1, 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.
