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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Seed 1.6 Flash vs Trinity Mini

Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 81 to 72 and 65 on our weighted score.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    72/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
  2. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed 1.6 Flash

    Released Aug 28, 2025Deprecated

    81/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.223
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Seed 1.6 Flash

  3. Arcee AI

    Trinity Mini

    Released Dec 1, 2025

    65/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.045 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Trinity Mini
01 — Verdict

Seed 1.6 Flash is our pick

Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72) and Trinity Mini (65). It leads on inputs & features. 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 · Seed 1.6 Flash $0.072 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Seed 1.6 Flash 256,000 · Trinity Mini 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSeed 1.6 FlashQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Seed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images, Video · Trinity Mini: Text
  • Self-hostingTrinity MiniPublishes downloadable weights (OpenMDW-1.1)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Seed 1.6 FlashTrinity Mini
Price50%100100100
Inputs & features30%508035
Context window20%373625
Overall100%72/10081/10065/100

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 Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Seed 1.6 Flash vs Trinity Mini specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance SeedTrinity MiniArcee AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.022 (best)$0.022$0.045
Output$0.215$0.223$0.15 (best)
Cached input—$0.0044—
Blended (3:1)$0.07 (best)$0.072$0.071
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.045 / $0.445Same rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersOfficial Volcengine Ark APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)256,000 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens32,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningNoYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpenOpenMDW-1.1
API model ID—doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828—
API providers15 (best)1
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Aug 28, 2025Dec 1, 2025
Knowledge cutoff———
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 Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
  • Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
  • Trinity Mini$0.75
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud), Seed 1.6 Flash or Trinity Mini?

Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72) and Trinity Mini (65). It leads on inputs & features. 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), Seed 1.6 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); Seed 1.6 Flash costs $0.022 input / $0.223 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark 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 $0.072 for Seed 1.6 Flash (1× 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, Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet 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), Seed 1.6 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?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 1.6 Flash and 131,072 for Trinity Mini. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000, Trinity Mini up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text, images and video; Trinity Mini accepts text. Seed 1.6 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 Seed 1.6 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; Seed 1.6 Flash came out Aug 28, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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