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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct vs Trinity Mini

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct comes out ahead, 40 to 31 on our weighted score.

  1. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct

    Released Aug 20, 2025

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

  2. Arcee AI

    Trinity Mini

    Released Dec 1, 2025

    31/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.045 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Trinity Mini

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is our pick

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 40/100 against Trinity Mini (31). It leads 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 priceTrinity MiniTrinity Mini $0.071 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct unpriced
  • Longest contextSeed-OSS-36B-InstructSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct 524,288 · Trinity Mini 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsSeed-OSS-36B-Instruct: Text · Trinity Mini: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightSeed-OSS-36B-InstructTrinity Mini
Inputs & features60%3535
Context window40%4925
Overall100%40/10031/100

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.

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct vs Trinity Mini specifications side by side
SpecificationSeed-OSS-36B-InstructByteDance SeedTrinity MiniArcee AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics67.5%—
Price per million tokens
Input—$0.045
Output—$0.15
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)—$0.071
Long-context rate—Same rate
Price source—Median of 1 providers
Limits
Context window524,288 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output524,288 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0OpenOpenMDW-1.1
API model ID——
API providers—1
ReleasedAug 20, 2025Dec 1, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJul 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.

  • Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct—
  • Trinity Mini$0.75
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct or Trinity Mini?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 40/100 against Trinity Mini (31). It leads 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, Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct or Trinity Mini?

Trinity Mini is cheaper at $0.045 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). . At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.071 per million tokens for Trinity Mini 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. Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct 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 Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct and Trinity Mini 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 131,072 for Trinity Mini. Maximum output per response: Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct up to 524,288, Trinity Mini up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct accepts text; Trinity Mini accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights (Apache 2.0 and OpenMDW-1.1), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Trinity Mini is the newest, released Dec 1, 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

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