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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B vs Seed 1.6

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B comes out ahead, 59 to 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

    Released Apr 2025

    59/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $0.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

  2. ByteDance Seed

    Seed 1.6

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.119 / $1.19
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Seed 1.6

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is our pick

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Seed 1.6 (55). It leads on price and inputs & features. Seed 1.6 wins on 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 priceQwen3-VL 30B-A3BQwen3-VL 30B-A3B $0.35 · Seed 1.6 $0.386 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSeed 1.6Seed 1.6 256,000 · Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3-VL 30B-A3BQwen3-VL 30B-A3B: Text, Images · Seed 1.6: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3-VL 30B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3-VL 30B-A3BSeed 1.6
Price50%7269
Inputs & features30%6045
Context window20%2436
Overall100%59/10055/100

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-VL 30B-A3B vs Seed 1.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3-VL 30B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)Seed 1.6ByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.20$0.119 (best)
Output$0.80 (best)$1.19
Cached input—$0.024
Blended (3:1)$0.35 (best)$0.386
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.178 / $2.37
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Volcengine Ark API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens256,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens64,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-vl-30b-a3bdoubao-seed-1-6-251015
API providers12 (best)
ReleasedApr 2025Oct 15, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 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-VL 30B-A3B$3.60
  • Seed 1.6$3.56
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B or Seed 1.6?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Seed 1.6 (55). It leads on price and inputs & features. Seed 1.6 wins on 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, Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B or Seed 1.6?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is cheaper at $0.20 input / $0.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Seed 1.6 costs $0.119 input / $1.19 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.35 per million tokens for Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B versus $0.386 for Seed 1.6 (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B has not been scored yet and Seed 1.6 has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B and Seed 1.6 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Seed 1.6 has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B up to 32,768, Seed 1.6 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B accepts text and images; Seed 1.6 accepts text. Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Seed 1.6 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B 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

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