Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.6 to 37.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher in 7 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 0 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads 61.3 to 55.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 57.4% for DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and 49.5% for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
  • DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is cheaper at $0.30 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
  • Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct specifications
DeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
ProviderDeepSeekAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index42.637.7
Released2025-09-222025-04
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window164K262K
Max output66K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$1.50
Output $ / M tokens$1$7.50
Results tracked1625

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 41.5 (#114), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Coding14261413
ALE-Bench745.17461.45
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—55.4%
LMArena WebDev—1275
SciCode40.6%—
GSO—4.9%
WeirdML—41.2%
AlgoTune—1.44

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Terminal-Bench—27.2%

Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 25.7 (#126), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Kagi LLM Benchmark57.4%49.5%
LMArena Hard Prompts14271372
CritPt1.7%—
DTBench81.3%—
LMCA28.6%—

Math Too close to call

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 35.7 (#138), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Math14021364

Knowledge Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Expert—1337

Multilingual DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 52.3 (#87), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Non-English14071345
LMArena Russian14341367
LMArena Chinese—1356
LMArena French—1394
LMArena German—1324
LMArena Japanese—1309
LMArena Korean—1307
LMArena Spanish—1360

Instruction Following DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 74.4 (#96), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14061356

Long Context DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 43.5 (#88), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14261379

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 61.3 (#87), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.1-TerminusQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
LMArena Text14201356
LMArena Creative Writing14041333
LMArena Multi-Turn14111365

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.6 to 37.7 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.

Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.5 versus 36.2 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct does, with 262K tokens against 164K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus has 16 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.

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