# MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

> MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 37.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m1-vs-qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 6 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where MiniMax M1 leads 39.2 to 36.2.
- MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.40 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 37.7 |
| Rank | 146 | 186 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $1.50 |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $7.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1413 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax M1: —
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1360 | 1364 |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1316 | 1337 |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1320 | 1345 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | 1356 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | 1394 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1324 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1220 | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | 1263 | 1307 |
| LMArena Russian | 1330 | 1367 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | 1360 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1356 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | 1379 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1356 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1365 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 37.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.

### Is MiniMax M1 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.2 versus 36.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.