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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Qwen3 8B vs DeepSeek-R1

Qwen3 8B comes out ahead, 56 to 51 and 51 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B

  3. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1

    Released Jan 20, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.0
    • Price$0.70 / $2.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-R1
01 — Verdict

Qwen3 8B is our pick

Qwen3 8B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51) and DeepSeek-R1 (51). It leads on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0 · Qwen3 8B 136.2
  • Lowest priceQwen3 8BQwen3 8B $0.31 · DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 235B-A22B and Qwen3 8BQwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3 235B-A22B: Text · Qwen3 8B: Text · DeepSeek-R1: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 235B-A22BQwen3 8BDeepSeek-R1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%656164
Price25%467447
Inputs & features15%353535
Context window10%242424
Overall100%51/10056/10051/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Qwen3 8B vs DeepSeek-R1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.4 (best)136.2139.0
ECI rank#103 of 148 (best)#113 of 148#104 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions70.7%56.8%71.7% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—56.1% (best)53.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70$0.18 (best)$0.70
Output$2.80$0.70 (best)$2.60
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$1.23$0.31 (best)$1.18
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens8,192 tokens32,768 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDqwen3-235b-a22bqwen3-8b—
API providers7112 (best)
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Apr 28, 2025Jan 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 2025Jul 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.

  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
  • DeepSeek-R1$12.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 235B-A22B, Qwen3 8B or DeepSeek-R1?

Qwen3 8B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51) and DeepSeek-R1 (51). It leads on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B-A22B, Qwen3 8B or DeepSeek-R1?

Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). DeepSeek-R1 costs $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers); Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.31 per million tokens for Qwen3 8B versus $1.18 for DeepSeek-R1 (3.8× as much) and $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 235B-A22B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148), DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148) and Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.2–140.8 vs 136.2–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%, Qwen3 8B 56.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B, Qwen3 8B and DeepSeek-R1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 235B-A22B and Qwen3 8B have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, Qwen3 8B up to 8,192, DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; Qwen3 8B accepts text; DeepSeek-R1 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. Qwen3 8B came out Apr 28, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, Qwen3 8B Apr 2025, DeepSeek-R1 Jul 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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