Model comparison
Qwen Max vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Max scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 37.6 to 22.3.
- Qwen Max is cheaper at $1.60 / $6.40 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 33K.
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 34.7 | 38.1 |
| Released | 2024-04-03 | 2025-04 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 33K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.60 | $1.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $6.40 | $7.50 |
| Results tracked | 23 | 25 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 35.5 (#223)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1288 | 1412 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| Aider Polyglot | 21.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen Max: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.9 (#123)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |
Reasoning Too close to call
Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 25.5 (#149)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1269 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
Math Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1275 | 1365 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.1% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 67.2% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.0 (#162)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1338 |
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.7 (#148)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1263 | 1346 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1254 | 1357 |
| LMArena French | 1330 | 1398 |
| LMArena German | 1254 | 1325 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1205 | 1310 |
| LMArena Korean | 1142 | 1305 |
| LMArena Russian | 1274 | 1366 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1290 | 1360 |
Instruction Following Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.6 (#147)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1262 | 1355 |
Long Context Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#131)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1288 | 1378 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
Writing & Preference Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.3 (#147)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1282 | 1357 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1248 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1277 | 1365 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Max better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Max or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Qwen Max is cheaper. It lists at $1.60 per million input tokens and $6.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.
Is Qwen Max or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.5 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct does, with 262K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen Max and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Max has 23 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.