Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is $0.31 cheaper per 1M input tokens (79.5% lower; 4.88x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Qwen3.5 397B A17B vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Pick Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct for lower cost; pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B only if the larger context window matters more.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct for lower cost; pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is estimated at $0.33 vs $1.56 for Qwen3.5 397B A17B, saving $1.23 (78.8% lower).
Cost-first pickQwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Context-first pickQwen3.5 397B A17B
Sample savings$1.2378.8%
10x traffic gap$12.3
Qwen3.5 397B A17B has more context, but Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct saves $1.23 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $12.3. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | $3.12 | $0.65 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | $2.73 | $0.58 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | $12.09 | $2.58 |
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is $1.84 cheaper per 1M output tokens (78.6% lower; 4.68x difference).
Qwen3.5 397B A17B has 6.14K more context (1.02x larger).
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is $1.23 cheaper on the standard workload (78.8% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct has the lower input price; Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct has the lower output price; Qwen3.5 397B A17B offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.56 for Qwen3.5 397B A17B and $0.33 for Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.
Choose Qwen3.5 397B A17B when you care most about larger context window.
Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is estimated at $0.33 vs $1.56 for Qwen3.5 397B A17B, saving $1.23 (78.8% lower).
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is $1.23 cheaper on the standard workload (78.8% lower).
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is $0.31 cheaper per 1M input tokens (79.5% lower; 4.88x difference).
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is $1.84 cheaper per 1M output tokens (78.6% lower; 4.68x difference).
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B has 6.14K more context (1.02x larger).
| Feature | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Qwen) | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.39 | $0.08 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $2.34 | $0.5 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $1.56 | $0.33 |
| Context Window | 262.14K | 256K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #53 | #108 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is estimated at $0.33 vs $1.56 for Qwen3.5 397B A17B, saving $1.23 (78.8% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct (free) can replace Qwen3.5 397B A17B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (free) can replace Qwen3.5 397B A17B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct can replace Qwen3.5 397B A17B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
- Qwen3.5-9B can replace Qwen3.5 397B A17B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.11.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4
Cheaper alternatives
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Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct is a multimodal vision-language model from the Qwen3-VL series, built for high-fidelity understanding and reasoning across text, images, and video. It features improved multimodal fusion with Interleaved-MRoPE for long-horizon...