Model Comparison

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking — which is better?

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (BFCL-v3). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct if…

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (BFCL-v3).

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jun 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

244.0B diff

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct has 244.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking, making it 103.4% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
480.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
236.0Bparameters
480.0B
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
236.0B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking specifies output context (262,144 tokens).

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Sat Jun 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct does not.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct was released on 2025-01-31, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is 8 months newer than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Jan 31, 2025

1.4 years ago

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

9 months ago

7mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Larger context window (262,144 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher BFCL-v3 score (71.9% vs 68.7%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.

Which is better, Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking in benchmarks?

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct scores TAU-bench Retail: 77.5%, SWE-Bench Verified: 69.6%, BFCL-v3: 68.7%, Aider-Polyglot: 61.8%, TAU-bench Airline: 60.0%. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking scores ZebraLogic: 97.3%, DocVQAtest: 96.5%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, CountBench: 93.7%, MMLU-Redux: 93.7%.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

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