ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct vs Nova Lite

Nova Lite comes out ahead, 77 to 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
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
  2. Our pick

    Amazon

    Nova Lite

    Released Dec 3, 2024

    77/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.06 / $0.24
    • Context300K
    Full specs Remove Nova Lite

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Nova Lite is our pick

Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (28). It leads on price, inputs & features and 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 priceNova LiteNova Lite $0.105 · Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextNova LiteNova Lite 300,000 · Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsNova LiteQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: Text · Nova Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructNova Lite
Price50%2796
Inputs & features30%2570
Context window20%3739
Overall100%28/10077/100

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 Nova Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Nova LiteAmazon
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$1.50$0.06 (best)
Output$7.50$0.24 (best)
Cached input—$0.015
Blended (3:1)$3.00$0.105 (best)
Long-context rateOver 32K: $2.70 / $13.50Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Amazon Bedrock API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens300,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens (best)10,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instructamazon.nova-lite-v1:0
API providers7 (best)3
ReleasedApr 2025Dec 3, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Oct 2024
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
  • Nova Lite$1.08
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct or Nova Lite?

Nova Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 77/100 against Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (28). It leads on price, inputs & features and 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, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct or Nova Lite?

Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.24 output per million tokens (official Amazon Bedrock API price). Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct costs $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.105 per million tokens for Nova Lite versus $3.00 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct (29× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has not been scored yet and Nova Lite has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct and Nova Lite 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?

Nova Lite has the largest context window at 300,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct up to 65,536, Nova Lite up to 10,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts text; Nova Lite accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Nova Lite 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; Nova Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 2025. Nova Lite came out Dec 3, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct Apr 2025, Nova Lite Oct 2024.

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

Related comparisons