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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Trinity Mini vs Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 72 to 65 and 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Arcee AI

    Trinity Mini

    Released Dec 1, 2025

    65/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.045 / $0.15
    • Context131K
  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Coder Next

    Released Feb 3, 2026

    47/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $1.20
    • Context262K
  3. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    72/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
01 — Verdict

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 Qwen3 Coder Next (47). 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 priceQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 · Trinity Mini $0.071 · Qwen3 Coder Next $0.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 Coder Next and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 Coder Next 262,144 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Trinity Mini 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Trinity Mini: Text · Qwen3 Coder Next: Text · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images
  • Self-hostingTrinity Mini and Qwen3 Coder NextPublishes downloadable weights (OpenMDW-1.1)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightTrinity MiniQwen3 Coder NextQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
Price50%10064100
Inputs & features30%352550
Context window20%253737
Overall100%65/10047/10072/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. 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.

Trinity Mini vs Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) specifications side by side
SpecificationTrinity MiniArcee AIQwen3 Coder NextAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.045$0.20$0.022 (best)
Output$0.15 (best)$1.20$0.215
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.071$0.45$0.07 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 15 providersMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)65,536 tokens32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenMDW-1.1OpenProprietary
API model ID———
API providers116 (best)1
ReleasedDec 1, 2025Feb 3, 2026Oct 15, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Sep 2025—
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.

  • Trinity Mini$0.75
  • Qwen3 Coder Next$4.40
  • Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Trinity Mini, Qwen3 Coder Next 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 Qwen3 Coder Next (47). 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, Trinity Mini, Qwen3 Coder Next 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); Qwen3 Coder Next costs $0.20 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 15 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 $0.45 for Qwen3 Coder Next (6.4× 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, Qwen3 Coder Next 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 Trinity Mini, Qwen3 Coder Next 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 Coder Next and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 131,072 for Trinity Mini. Maximum output per response: Trinity Mini up to 131,072, Qwen3 Coder Next up to 65,536, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Trinity Mini accepts text; Qwen3 Coder Next 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 Qwen3 Coder Next publishes its weights (OpenMDW-1.1) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Coder Next is the newest, released Feb 3, 2026. Trinity Mini came out Dec 1, 2025; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Coder Next Sep 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.