Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct API pricing
Alibaba · Budget price tier · Apache 2.0 · released 2025-10. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-10-22.
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct has held the same list price since 2026-10-18 and is the 100th cheapest of 164 models in the Budget price tier. Only one host, Parasail, sells it, so there is no second price to shop. No Arena score is published for it, so it carries no Efficiency score and cannot hold the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $0.25 per 1M tokens
- Output: $0.75 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.12 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 262K tokens
- Arena ELO: Not published
Market position
On blended price ($0.60 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 39% of models in the Budget price tier: 100th cheapest of 164, tied with one other. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 67% of priced text models in the catalogue: 100th cheapest of 308, tied with one other.
Licence, size and capabilities
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is open source: its weights are published under Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token. Its published size is 8B parameters. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Agents. Filling its 262K context window once costs $0.0655 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 1 host. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
Parasail is the only host with a published rate, $0.25 input / $0.75 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parasail (price we quote) | $0.25 | $0.75 | bf16 |
List prices as published on 2026-10-22, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where Alibaba publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $63 – $75 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $92 – $110 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $327 – $340 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $191 – $198 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $206 – $225 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $77 – $83 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $100 – $102 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $320 – $375 |
Price history
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct entered our daily price archive on 2026-10-18; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per 1M tokens that day. No list price change since 2026-10-18. Last checked against the 2026-10-22 snapshot.
Alternatives to Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- Next cheaper model in the Budget price tier: Qwen3 Coder Next (Alibaba) at $0.596 blended, 1% less.
- Next more expensive: Qwen-Plus (Alibaba) at $0.624 blended, 4% more.
Other models from Alibaba
The 8 nearest to Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct in price, of 41 other Alibaba models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: $0.36 / $0.40
- Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507: $0.09 / $0.55
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct: $0.15 / $0.60
- Qwen3 Coder Next: $0.12 / $0.80
- Qwen-Plus: $0.26 / $0.78
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B: $0.10 / $0.95
- Qwen3 Coder Flash: $0.195 / $0.975
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: $0.14 / $1.00
All 42 Alibaba models and prices
Common questions about Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct pricing
- How much does Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct cost?
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs $0.25 per 1M input tokens and $0.75 per 1M output tokens at Parasail, the host whose rate we quote. Prices as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Which host is cheapest for Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?
- Parasail is the only host with a published rate, $0.25 input / $0.75 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote. Host rates as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Does Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.12 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-10-22. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $75 on Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct at the list price quoted on 2026-10-22.
- Can Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct be self-hosted?
- Yes. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is open source: its weights are published under Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token.
- Has the price of Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct changed?
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct entered our daily price archive on 2026-10-18; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per 1M tokens that day. No list price change since 2026-10-18. Last checked against the 2026-10-22 snapshot.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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