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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Pixtral Large (25.02) vs Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct comes out ahead, 41 to 33 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Pixtral Large (25.02)

    Released Apr 8, 2025

    33/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Pixtral Large (25.02)
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

    Released Apr 2025

    41/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.45 / $2.25
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct is our pick

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 41/100 against Pixtral Large (25.02) (33). It leads on price and context window. Pixtral Large (25.02) wins on inputs & features. 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 priceQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct $0.90 · Pixtral Large (25.02) $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 262,144 · Pixtral Large (25.02) 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsPixtral Large (25.02)Pixtral Large (25.02): Text, Images · Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightPixtral Large (25.02)Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct
Price50%2752
Inputs & features30%5025
Context window20%2437
Overall100%33/10041/100

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.

Pixtral Large (25.02) vs Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationPixtral Large (25.02)Mistral AIQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.45 (best)
Output$6.00$2.25 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$3.00$0.90 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.75 / $3.75
Price sourceMedian of 3 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model ID—qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct
API providers313 (best)
ReleasedApr 8, 2025Apr 2025
Knowledge cutoff—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.

  • Pixtral Large (25.02)$32.00
  • Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct$9.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Pixtral Large (25.02) or Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 41/100 against Pixtral Large (25.02) (33). It leads on price and context window. Pixtral Large (25.02) wins on inputs & features. 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, Pixtral Large (25.02) or Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct is cheaper at $0.45 input / $2.25 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Pixtral Large (25.02) costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.90 per million tokens for Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct versus $3.00 for Pixtral Large (25.02) (3.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Pixtral Large (25.02) has not been scored yet and Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B 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 30B-A3B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 128,000 for Pixtral Large (25.02). Maximum output per response: Pixtral Large (25.02) up to 8,192, Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Pixtral Large (25.02) accepts text and images; Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct accepts text. Pixtral Large (25.02) handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Pixtral Large (25.02) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Pixtral Large (25.02) is the newest, released Apr 8, 2025. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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