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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Opus 4.1 vs Pixtral Large (25.02) vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

Pixtral Large (25.02) comes out ahead, 33 to 28 and 27 on our weighted score.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 4.1

    Released Aug 5, 2025

    27/100
    • ECI144.1
    • Price$15.00 / $75.00
    • Context200K
  2. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Pixtral Large (25.02)

    Released Apr 8, 2025

    33/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context128K
  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

    Released Apr 2025

    28/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$1.50 / $7.50
    • Context262K
01 — Verdict

Pixtral Large (25.02) is our pick

Pixtral Large (25.02) is the better all-round choice, scoring 33/100 against Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (28) and Claude Opus 4.1 (27). Claude Opus 4.1 wins on inputs & features. Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest pricePixtral Large (25.02) and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructPixtral Large (25.02) $3.00 · Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct $3.00 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct 262,144 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 · Pixtral Large (25.02) 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Opus 4.1Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Pixtral Large (25.02): Text, Images · Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Opus 4.1Pixtral Large (25.02)Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Price50%02727
Inputs & features30%705025
Context window20%322437
Overall100%27/10033/10028/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Claude Opus 4.1 vs Pixtral Large (25.02) vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Opus 4.1AnthropicPixtral Large (25.02)Mistral AIQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)144.1——
ECI rank#81 of 148——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions77.3%——
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics12.6%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics68.9%——
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues73.4%——
Price per million tokens
Input$15.00$2.00$1.50 (best)
Output$75.00$6.00 (best)$7.50
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$30.00$3.00 (best)$3.00 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateOver 32K: $2.70 / $13.50
Price sourceMedian of 14 providersMedian of 3 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens128,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output32,000 tokens8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model ID——qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
API providers14 (best)37
ReleasedAug 5, 2025Apr 8, 2025Apr 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 31, 2025—Apr 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
  • Pixtral Large (25.02)$32.00
  • Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct$30.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Opus 4.1, Pixtral Large (25.02) or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Pixtral Large (25.02) is the better all-round choice, scoring 33/100 against Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (28) and Claude Opus 4.1 (27). Claude Opus 4.1 wins on inputs & features. Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.1, Pixtral Large (25.02) or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Pixtral Large (25.02) is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct costs $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Claude Opus 4.1 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Pixtral Large (25.02) versus $3.00 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (1× as much) and $30.00 for Claude Opus 4.1 (10× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Claude Opus 4.1 has an ECI of 144.1, Pixtral Large (25.02) has not been scored yet and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Pixtral Large (25.02) and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.1 and 128,000 for Pixtral Large (25.02). Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000, Pixtral Large (25.02) up to 8,192, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Pixtral Large (25.02) accepts text and images; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts text. Claude Opus 4.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Opus 4.1 and Pixtral Large (25.02) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Opus 4.1 is the newest, released Aug 5, 2025. Pixtral Large (25.02) came out Apr 8, 2025; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 4.1 Mar 31, 2025, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct Apr 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.