Qwen3 Coder Plus vs Apertus 70B
Qwen3 Coder Plus comes out ahead, 37 to 33 on our weighted score, though Apertus 70B is 39% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Coder Plus
37/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context1.05M
Swiss AI
Apertus 70B
33/100- ECI—
- Price$0.82 / $2.42
- Context66K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Qwen3 Coder Plus is our pick
Qwen3 Coder Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 37/100 against Apertus 70B (33). It leads on context window. Apertus 70B wins on price. 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 priceApertus 70BApertus 70B $1.22 · Qwen3 Coder Plus $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 Coder PlusQwen3 Coder Plus 1,048,576 · Apertus 70B 65,536 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3 Coder Plus: Text · Apertus 70B: Text
- Self-hostingApertus 70BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Coder Plus | Apertus 70B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 36 | 46 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 61 | 12 |
| Overall | 100% | 37/100 | 33/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 Coder PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Apertus 70BSwiss AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.00 | $0.82 (best) |
| Output | $5.00 | $2.42 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 | $1.22 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | qwen3-coder-plus | — |
| API providers | 11 (best) | 3 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2025 | Sep 2, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Sep 2025 |
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 Plus$20.00
- Apertus 70B$13.04
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Coder Plus or Apertus 70B?
Qwen3 Coder Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 37/100 against Apertus 70B (33). It leads on context window. Apertus 70B wins on price. 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 Plus or Apertus 70B?
Apertus 70B is cheaper at $0.82 input / $2.42 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Qwen3 Coder Plus costs $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.22 per million tokens for Apertus 70B versus $2.00 for Qwen3 Coder Plus (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3 Coder Plus has not been scored yet and Apertus 70B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Coder Plus and Apertus 70B 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 Plus has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 65,536 for Apertus 70B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Coder Plus up to 65,536, Apertus 70B up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Coder Plus accepts text; Apertus 70B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Apertus 70B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Coder Plus is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Apertus 70B is the newest, released Sep 2, 2025. Qwen3 Coder Plus came out Jul 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Coder Plus Apr 2025, Apertus 70B Sep 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.
