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Head-to-head comparison

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Qwen3 Max Thinking

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (Qwen) and Qwen3 Max Thinking (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 17 August 2026

As of 17 August 2026, Qwen3 Max Thinking holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#56 vs #62); Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B is 3.9× cheaper per output token ($1.00/1M vs $3.90/1M); and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B if…

  • API cost matters — $1.00/1M output tokens against $3.90/1M, about 3.9× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.30/1M against $0.78/1M.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B ships open weights while Qwen3 Max Thinking is api only.
  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 1.

Choose Qwen3 Max Thinking if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #56 against #62 (44.5 vs 42.3 points).
  • Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index is your yardstick — 32.5 against 18.2.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Qwen3 Max Thinking was listed 9 February 2026, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 23 July 2025.

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Qwen3 Max Thinking: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B and Qwen3 Max Thinking
FieldQwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwenQwen3 Max ThinkingQwen
ModelCap Index position#62#56
Index score42.344.5
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.30$0.78
Output price / 1M tokens$1.00$3.90
Context window262K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens66K66K
API providers listed51
Weight accessOpen weightsAPI only
Input modalitiesTextText
First listed23 July 20259 February 2026
PublisherQwenQwen

Evidence: 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards · 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Qwen3 Max Thinking

Public benchmark boards where Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B or Qwen3 Max Thinking has a published result
BoardQwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwen3 Max ThinkingLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)14571448–1466—Only one result
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis18.2intelligence-index32.5intelligence-indexQwen3 Max Thinking

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Qwen3 Max Thinking: common questions

Is Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B better than Qwen3 Max Thinking?

Qwen3 Max Thinking ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 August 2026: #56 against #62. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B cheaper than Qwen3 Max Thinking?

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B is cheaper on output tokens: $1.00/1M against $3.90/1M. Input tokens are $0.30/1M for Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B and $0.78/1M for Qwen3 Max Thinking. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B or Qwen3 Max Thinking?

Both publish a 262K-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B or Qwen3 Max Thinking?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B and Qwen3 Max Thinking open-weight models?

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B: Open weights. Qwen3 Max Thinking: API only. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B and Qwen3 Max Thinking?

ModelCap currently lists 5 API providers for Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B and 1 for Qwen3 Max Thinking, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Qwen3 Max Thinking comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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