Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct | Reka Flash (Sep '24) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.2 | $0.2 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.8 | $0.8 |
Verdict. Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct wins the overall benchmark matchup 1–0 across 1 overlapping categories, but raw benchmark score is only one input to the decision.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Reka Flash (Sep '24) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Reka Flash (Sep '24) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct is strongest on Intelligence Index (8.9). Reka Flash (Sep '24) leads on Intelligence Index (6.0).
Speed. On throughput, Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct generates tokens at 142 tok/s versus 56 tok/s — about 61% faster. On time-to-first-token, Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct responds in 1870ms vs 2280ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Alibaba and Reka AI sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Alibaba tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Reka AI often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct costs $18.00 ($216/year); Reka Flash (Sep '24) costs $18.00 ($216/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct ≈ $2.60/run, Reka Flash (Sep '24) ≈ $2.60/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct ≈ $120/run, Reka Flash (Sep '24) ≈ $120/run.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Both models have similar pricing. Check the detailed breakdown above for input vs output token costs.
Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct wins 1 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Reka Flash (Sep '24). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct generates tokens faster at 142 tok/s vs 56 tok/s. Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct also has lower time-to-first-token (1.87s vs 2.28s).
Choose based on your priorities: both are similarly priced, Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct for stronger benchmark performance, and Qwen3 30B A3B 2507 Instruct for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.