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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct vs Pixtral Large (25.02)

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct comes out ahead, 45 to 33 and 28 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

    Released Apr 2025

    28/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$1.50 / $7.50
    • Context262K
  2. Our pick

    NVIDIA

    Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct

    Released Apr 15, 2025

    45/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.478 / $0.504
    • Context128K
  3. Mistral AI

    Pixtral Large (25.02)

    Released Apr 8, 2025

    33/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context128K
01 — Verdict

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct is our pick

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Pixtral Large (25.02) (33) and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (28). It leads on price. Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct wins on 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 priceLlama 3.1 Nemotron 70B InstructLlama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct $0.485 · Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct $3.00 · Pixtral Large (25.02) $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct 262,144 · Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct 128,000 · Pixtral Large (25.02) 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsPixtral Large (25.02)Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: Text · Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct: Text · Pixtral Large (25.02): Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct and Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructLlama 3.1 Nemotron 70B InstructPixtral Large (25.02)
Price50%276527
Inputs & features30%252550
Context window20%372424
Overall100%28/10045/10033/100

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.

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct vs Pixtral Large (25.02) specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B InstructNVIDIAPixtral Large (25.02)Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$1.50$0.478 (best)$2.00
Output$7.50$0.504 (best)$6.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$3.00$0.485 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateOver 32K: $2.70 / $13.50Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providersMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)8,192 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instructnvidia/llama-3.1-nemotron-70b-instruct—
API providers7 (best)33
ReleasedApr 2025Apr 15, 2025Apr 8, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 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.

  • Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct$30.00
  • Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct$5.79
  • Pixtral Large (25.02)$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct, Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct or Pixtral Large (25.02)?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Pixtral Large (25.02) (33) and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (28). It leads on price. Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct wins on 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, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct, Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct or Pixtral Large (25.02)?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct is cheaper at $0.478 input / $0.504 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers; free on Nvidia). Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct costs $1.50 input / $7.50 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 $0.485 per million tokens for Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct versus $3.00 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (6.2× as much) and $3.00 for Pixtral Large (25.02) (6.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has not been scored yet, Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct has not been scored yet and Pixtral Large (25.02) has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct, Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct and Pixtral Large (25.02) 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 128,000 for Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct and 128,000 for Pixtral Large (25.02). Maximum output per response: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct up to 65,536, Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct up to 8,192, Pixtral Large (25.02) up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts text; Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct accepts text; Pixtral Large (25.02) accepts text and images. Pixtral Large (25.02) handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct and Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Pixtral Large (25.02) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 15, 2025. Pixtral Large (25.02) came out Apr 8, 2025; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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.