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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct vs Qwen-MT Plus

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct comes out ahead, 28 to 12 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen-MT Plus

    Released Jan 2025

    12/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.46 / $7.37
    • Context16K
    Full specs Remove Qwen-MT Plus

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is our pick

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 28/100 against Qwen-MT Plus (12). 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 priceQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct $3.00 · Qwen-MT Plus $3.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct 262,144 · Qwen-MT Plus 16,384 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: Text · Qwen-MT Plus: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructQwen-MT Plus
Price50%2723
Inputs & features30%250
Context window20%370
Overall100%28/10012/100

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 Qwen-MT Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3-Coder 480B-A35B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen-MT PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$1.50 (best)$2.46
Output$7.50$7.37 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$3.00 (best)$3.69
Long-context rateOver 32K: $2.70 / $13.50Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesNo
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instructqwen-mt-plus
API providers7 (best)1
ReleasedApr 2025Jan 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 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
  • Qwen-MT Plus$39.34
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct or Qwen-MT Plus?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 28/100 against Qwen-MT Plus (12). 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 Qwen-MT Plus?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is cheaper at $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen-MT Plus costs $2.46 input / $7.37 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct versus $3.69 for Qwen-MT Plus (1.2× 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 Qwen-MT Plus 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 Qwen-MT Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen-MT Plus does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 16,384 for Qwen-MT Plus. Maximum output per response: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct up to 65,536, Qwen-MT Plus up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts text; Qwen-MT Plus accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen-MT Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 2025. Qwen-MT Plus came out Jan 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct Apr 2025, Qwen-MT Plus Apr 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

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