Seed 1.6 Vision vs Qwen3-VL Plus vs GLM-4.5-Air
Seed 1.6 Vision comes out ahead, 63 to 56 and 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.6 Vision
63/100- ECI—
- Price$0.119 / $1.19
- Context256K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3-VL Plus
56/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.60
- Context262K
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-4.5-Air
49/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.10
- Context131K
Seed 1.6 Vision is our pick
Seed 1.6 Vision is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Qwen3-VL Plus (56) and GLM-4.5-Air (49). It leads on price and 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 priceSeed 1.6 VisionSeed 1.6 Vision $0.386 · GLM-4.5-Air $0.425 · Qwen3-VL Plus $0.55 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3-VL PlusQwen3-VL Plus 262,144 · Seed 1.6 Vision 256,000 · GLM-4.5-Air 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 1.6 Vision and Qwen3-VL PlusSeed 1.6 Vision: Text, Images · Qwen3-VL Plus: Text, Images · GLM-4.5-Air: Text
- Self-hostingGLM-4.5-AirPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Seed 1.6 Vision | Qwen3-VL Plus | GLM-4.5-Air |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 69 | 62 | 68 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 70 | 60 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 37 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 63/100 | 56/100 | 49/100 |
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 VisionByteDance Seed | Qwen3-VL PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | GLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.119 (best) | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Output | $1.19 | $1.60 | $1.10 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.024 (best) | — | $0.03 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.386 (best) | $0.55 | $0.425 |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.178 / $2.37 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | Official Alibaba API | Official Z.AI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens | 98,304 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-1-6-vision-250815 | qwen3-vl-plus | glm-4.5-air |
| API providers | 2 | 6 | 13 (best) |
| Released | Aug 15, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 | Jul 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 2025 | Apr 2025 |
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 Vision$3.56
- Qwen3-VL Plus$5.20
- GLM-4.5-Air$4.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed 1.6 Vision, Qwen3-VL Plus or GLM-4.5-Air?
Seed 1.6 Vision is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Qwen3-VL Plus (56) and GLM-4.5-Air (49). It leads on price and 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 Vision, Qwen3-VL Plus or GLM-4.5-Air?
Seed 1.6 Vision is cheaper at $0.119 input / $1.19 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price); Qwen3-VL Plus costs $0.20 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.386 per million tokens for Seed 1.6 Vision versus $0.425 for GLM-4.5-Air (1.1× as much) and $0.55 for Qwen3-VL Plus (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Seed 1.6 Vision has not been scored yet, Qwen3-VL Plus has not been scored yet and GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed 1.6 Vision, Qwen3-VL Plus and GLM-4.5-Air 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 Plus has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 1.6 Vision and 131,072 for GLM-4.5-Air. Maximum output per response: Seed 1.6 Vision up to 32,000, Qwen3-VL Plus up to 32,768, GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Seed 1.6 Vision accepts text and images; Qwen3-VL Plus accepts text and images; GLM-4.5-Air accepts text. Seed 1.6 Vision handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-4.5-Air publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 Vision and Qwen3-VL Plus is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3-VL Plus is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Seed 1.6 Vision came out Aug 15, 2025; GLM-4.5-Air came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-VL Plus Apr 2025, GLM-4.5-Air 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.
