Model comparison
Muse Spark 1.2 vs Qwen3 8B
Muse Spark 1.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 50.3 to 33.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 8B costs 6.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 5 shared benchmarks.
Meta
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 5 benchmarks with published results for both. Muse Spark 1.2 scores higher in 5 categories and Qwen3 8B in 1 category; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Muse Spark 1.2 leads 51.3 to 16.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is LMCA: 48.4% for Muse Spark 1.2 and 8.8% for Qwen3 8B.
- Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 / $0.70 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2.
- Muse Spark 1.2 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Qwen3 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 50.3 | 33.7 |
| Released | 2026-08-05 | 2025-04 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 131K | 8K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.25 | $0.18 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4.25 | $0.70 |
| Results tracked | 31 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Muse Spark 1.2 leads
Muse Spark 1.2: 49.2 (#51), Qwen3 8B: 34.0 (#248)
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 56.4% | 22.6% |
| DeepSWE | 54.9% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1533 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 12% | — |
| WeirdML | 60.3% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1495 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Too close to call
Muse Spark 1.2: 29.4 (#87), Qwen3 8B: 30.2 (#78)
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 36.4% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 42.6% |
| GDP.pdf | 16% | — |
Reasoning Muse Spark 1.2 leads
Muse Spark 1.2: 51.3 (#34), Qwen3 8B: 16.6 (#303)
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 17.7% | 0% |
| DTBench | 94.7% | 59.7% |
| LMCA | 48.4% | 8.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.87 | 136.17 |
| SimpleBench | 74.5% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 79.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1486 | — |
Math Muse Spark 1.2 leads
Muse Spark 1.2: 46.4 (#70), Qwen3 8B: 34.9 (#191)
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 56.1% |
| ProofBench | 43% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1471 | — |
Knowledge Muse Spark 1.2 leads
Muse Spark 1.2: 54.1 (#53), Qwen3 8B: 36.1 (#173)
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.8% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 60.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 4.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1480 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Muse Spark 1.2: 43.4 (#25), Qwen3 8B: —
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1305 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Muse Spark 1.2: 57.1 (#11), Qwen3 8B: —
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1478 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1511 | — |
| LMArena French | 1513 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1498 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Muse Spark 1.2: 76.7 (#36), Qwen3 8B: —
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1461 | — |
Long Context Muse Spark 1.2 leads
Muse Spark 1.2: 45.2 (#48), Qwen3 8B: 37.9 (#210)
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 62.1% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1475 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Muse Spark 1.2: 72.3 (#14), Qwen3 8B: —
| Benchmark | Muse Spark 1.2 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1482 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1449 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1840 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1494 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Muse Spark 1.2 better than Qwen3 8B?
Muse Spark 1.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 50.3 to 33.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 8B costs 6.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Muse Spark 1.2 or Qwen3 8B?
Qwen3 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.18 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens; Muse Spark 1.2 lists at $1.25 and $4.25.
Is Muse Spark 1.2 or Qwen3 8B better for coding?
Muse Spark 1.2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.2 versus 34.0 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Muse Spark 1.2 does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Muse Spark 1.2 and Qwen3 8B share?
5 benchmarks have published results for both models. Muse Spark 1.2 has 31 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 8B has 11.