# Grok-2 (Dec 2024) vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

> Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 33.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/grok-2-vs-qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok-2 (Dec 2024) scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 37.6 to 20.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 22.2% for Grok-2 (Dec 2024) and 41.2% for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.7 | 38.1 |
| Rank | 239 | 190 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.50 |
| Output $/M | — | $7.50 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 33.3 (#258)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 35.5 (#223)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| WeirdML | 22.2% | 41.2% |
| LMArena Coding | 1287 | 1412 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| LiveBench Coding | 46.4% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): —
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.9 (#123)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |

## Reasoning

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 16.9 (#299)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 25.5 (#149)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1272 | 1372 |
| SimpleBench | 22.7% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 54.8% | — |
| DTBench | 65.2% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 54.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 130.48 | — |
| LiveBench | 54.3% | — |

## Math

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 20.8 (#284)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1283 | 1365 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 11.5% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 54.9% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 63.5% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 0.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 29.8 (#233)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.0 (#162)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1254 | 1338 |
| GPQA Diamond | 53.8% | — |
| Confabulations | 20.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 43.1 (#188)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.7 (#148)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1282 | 1346 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1289 | 1357 |
| LMArena French | 1318 | 1398 |
| LMArena German | 1287 | 1325 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1244 | 1310 |
| LMArena Korean | 1237 | 1305 |
| LMArena Russian | 1286 | 1366 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1281 | 1360 |

## Instruction Following

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 66.9 (#202)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.6 (#147)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1270 | 1355 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 69.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 38.8 (#190)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#131)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1276 | 1378 |

## Writing & Preference

- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 48.6 (#198)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.3 (#147)

| Benchmark | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1305 | 1357 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1284 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1365 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 63.6% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 45.6% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Grok-2 (Dec 2024) better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 33.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Grok-2 (Dec 2024) or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.5 versus 33.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Grok-2 (Dec 2024) and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok-2 (Dec 2024) has 34 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.
