Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Trinity Mini
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 72 to 68 and 65 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.215
- Context262K
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash
68/100- ECI140.6
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Arcee AITrinity Mini
65/100- ECI—
- Price$0.045 / $0.15
- Context131K
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is our pick
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Gemini 2.5 Flash (68) and Trinity Mini (65). Gemini 2.5 Flash wins on 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 priceQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 · Trinity Mini $0.071 · Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Trinity Mini 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Trinity Mini: Text
- Self-hostingTrinity MiniPublishes downloadable weights (OpenMDW-1.1)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Trinity Mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 51 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 100 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 61 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 72/100 | 68/100 | 65/100 |
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 | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen) | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | Trinity MiniArcee AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 140.6 | — |
| ECI rank | — | #110 of 165 | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.022 (best) | $0.30 | $0.045 |
| Output | $0.215 | $2.50 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.07 (best) | $0.85 | $0.071 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Google API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenOpenMDW-1.1 |
| API model ID | — | gemini-2.5-flash | — |
| API providers | 1 | 32 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 15, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Dec 1, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | — |
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 Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
- Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
- Trinity Mini$0.75
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud), Gemini 2.5 Flash or Trinity Mini?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Gemini 2.5 Flash (68) and Trinity Mini (65). Gemini 2.5 Flash wins on 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, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud), Gemini 2.5 Flash or Trinity Mini?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Trinity Mini costs $0.045 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.07 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) versus $0.071 for Trinity Mini (1× as much) and $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash (12× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet, Gemini 2.5 Flash has an ECI of 140.6 and Trinity Mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud), Gemini 2.5 Flash and Trinity Mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and 131,072 for Trinity Mini. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Trinity Mini up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Trinity Mini accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Trinity Mini publishes its weights (OpenMDW-1.1) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Gemini 2.5 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Trinity Mini is the newest, released Dec 1, 2025. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash Jan 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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