Trinity Mini vs DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 72 to 65 and 41 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Arcee AITrinity Mini
65/100- ECI—
- Price$0.045 / $0.15
- Context131K
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 0528
41/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.215
- Context262K
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is our pick
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Trinity Mini (65) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (41). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 · Trinity Mini 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Trinity Mini: Text · DeepSeek R1 0528: Text · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images
- Self-hostingTrinity Mini and DeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (OpenMDW-1.1 and MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Trinity Mini | DeepSeek R1 0528 | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 49 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 35 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 28 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 41/100 | 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 | Trinity MiniArcee AI | DeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 141.2 | — |
| ECI rank | — | #108 of 165 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 76.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 66.4% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.045 | $0.512 | $0.022 (best) |
| Output | $0.15 (best) | $2.19 | $0.215 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.071 | $0.932 | $0.07 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 16 providers | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 163,840 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenOpenMDW-1.1 | OpenMIT | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 1 | 16 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Dec 1, 2025 | May 28, 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.
- Trinity Mini$0.75
- DeepSeek R1 0528$9.50
- Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Trinity Mini, DeepSeek R1 0528 or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Trinity Mini (65) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (41). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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, Trinity Mini, DeepSeek R1 0528 or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?
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); DeepSeek R1 0528 costs $0.512 input / $2.19 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). 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 $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (13× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Trinity Mini has not been scored yet, DeepSeek R1 0528 has an ECI of 141.2 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 Trinity Mini, DeepSeek R1 0528 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. 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 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528 and 131,072 for Trinity Mini. Maximum output per response: Trinity Mini up to 131,072, DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Trinity Mini accepts text; DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Trinity Mini and DeepSeek R1 0528 publishes its weights (OpenMDW-1.1 and MIT) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Trinity Mini is the newest, released Dec 1, 2025. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 2025; DeepSeek R1 0528 came out May 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.
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