ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct vs Qwen-VL OCR vs GLM-4.5V

GLM-4.5V comes out ahead, 49 to 41 and 36 on our weighted score, though Qwen-VL OCR is 20% cheaper per token.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

    Released Apr 2025

    41/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.45 / $2.25
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

  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. Our pick

    Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-4.5V

    Released Aug 11, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.60 / $1.80
    • Context64K
    Full specs Remove GLM-4.5V
01 — Verdict

GLM-4.5V is our pick

GLM-4.5V is the better all-round choice, scoring 49/100 against Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (41) and Qwen-VL OCR (36). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct wins on context window. Qwen-VL OCR 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 priceQwen-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct $0.90 · GLM-4.5V $0.90 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 262,144 · GLM-4.5V 64,000 · Qwen-VL OCR 34,096 tokens
  • Widest inputsGLM-4.5VQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct: Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images · GLM-4.5V: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct and GLM-4.5VPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructQwen-VL OCRGLM-4.5V
Price50%525752
Inputs & features30%252570
Context window20%37112
Overall100%41/10036/10049/100

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.

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct vs Qwen-VL OCR vs GLM-4.5V specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen)GLM-4.5VZ.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.45 (best)$0.72$0.60
Output$2.25$0.72 (best)$1.80
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.90$0.72 (best)$0.90
Long-context rateOver 32K: $0.75 / $3.75Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)34,096 tokens64,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)4,096 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesNoYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instructqwen-vl-ocrglm-4.5v
API providers13 (best)111
ReleasedApr 2025Oct 28, 2024Aug 11, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 2024Apr 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.

  • Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct$9.00
  • Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
  • GLM-4.5V$9.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct, Qwen-VL OCR or GLM-4.5V?

GLM-4.5V is the better all-round choice, scoring 49/100 against Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (41) and Qwen-VL OCR (36). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct wins on context window. Qwen-VL OCR 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, Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct, Qwen-VL OCR or GLM-4.5V?

Qwen-VL OCR is cheaper at $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct costs $0.45 input / $2.25 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); GLM-4.5V costs $0.60 input / $1.80 output per million tokens (official Z.AI 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 $0.90 for Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (1.3× as much) and $0.90 for GLM-4.5V (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct has not been scored yet, Qwen-VL OCR has not been scored yet and GLM-4.5V has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct, Qwen-VL OCR and GLM-4.5V 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?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 64,000 for GLM-4.5V and 34,096 for Qwen-VL OCR. Maximum output per response: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct up to 65,536, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096, GLM-4.5V up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct accepts text; Qwen-VL OCR accepts text and images; GLM-4.5V accepts text, images and video. GLM-4.5V handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct and GLM-4.5V publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen-VL OCR is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GLM-4.5V is the newest, released Aug 11, 2025. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct came out Apr 2025; Qwen-VL OCR came out Oct 28, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct Apr 2025, Qwen-VL OCR Apr 2024, GLM-4.5V Apr 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons