Seed 1.6 Flash vs Baichuan M2 32B vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 81 to 72 and 58 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.6 Flash
81/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.223
- Context256K
BaichuanBaichuan M2 32B
58/100- ECI—
- Price$0.07 / $0.07
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.215
- Context262K
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 Baichuan M2 32B (58). 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 priceBaichuan M2 32BBaichuan M2 32B $0.07 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 · 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 · Baichuan M2 32B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images, Video · Baichuan M2 32B: Text · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images
- Self-hostingBaichuan M2 32BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Seed 1.6 Flash | Baichuan M2 32B | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 80 | 10 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 25 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 81/100 | 58/100 | 72/100 |
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 | Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance Seed | Baichuan M2 32BBaichuan | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.022 | $0.07 | $0.022 (best) |
| Output | $0.223 | $0.07 (best) | $0.215 |
| Cached input | $0.0044 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.072 | $0.07 (best) | $0.07 |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.045 / $0.445 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | Median of 1 providers | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828 | — | — |
| API providers | 5 (best) | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Aug 28, 2025 | Aug 13, 2025 | Oct 15, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
- Baichuan M2 32B$0.84
- Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed 1.6 Flash, Baichuan M2 32B or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72) and Baichuan M2 32B (58). 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, Seed 1.6 Flash, Baichuan M2 32B or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?
Baichuan M2 32B is cheaper at $0.07 input / $0.07 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) costs $0.022 input / $0.215 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 Baichuan M2 32B versus $0.07 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (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. Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet, Baichuan M2 32B has not been scored yet and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed 1.6 Flash, Baichuan M2 32B and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Baichuan M2 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
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 Baichuan M2 32B. Maximum output per response: Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000, Baichuan M2 32B up to 131,072, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text, images and video; Baichuan M2 32B accepts text; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images. Seed 1.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Baichuan M2 32B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 Flash and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Seed 1.6 Flash came out Aug 28, 2025; Baichuan M2 32B came out Aug 13, 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.
