ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 45 to 40 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    45/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

  2. ByteDance Seed

    Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

    Released Aug 20, 2025

    40/100
    • ECI—
    • Price—
    • Context524K
    Full specs Remove Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is our pick

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40). It leads on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
  • Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingSeed-OSS-36B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct
Inputs & features60%5035
Context window40%3749
Overall100%45/10040/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. 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-OSS-36B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)Seed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—71.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—67.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.022—
Output$0.215—
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.07—
Long-context rateSame rate—
Price sourceMedian of 1 providers—
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens524,288 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens524,288 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model ID——
API providers1—
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Aug 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jul 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
  • Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct (40). It leads on inputs & features. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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) or Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). . 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 . Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has no published per-token price.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 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-OSS-36B-Instruct has the largest context window at 524,288 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud). Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct came out Aug 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons