Compare / Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 vs o3
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 vs o3
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 25 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 25 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc). See also Alibaba vs OpenAI, every model from both labs.
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3? The short answer
Pick o3 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 20.2 against 12.0). Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 12 times less per token.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is cheaper: $0.30 against $3.50 per million tokens, 12 times less.
- o3 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 20.2 against 12.0.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is newer: released 21 Jul 2025, against 16 Apr 2025 for o3.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 does better for sticking to the facts; o3 for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 | o3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.15 in · $0.75 out | $2.00 in · $8.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.30 | $3.50 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.15 (GMICloud, FP8) | – |
| Intelligence Index | 12.0 | 20.2 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 123 |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Released | 21 Jul 2025 (newer) | 16 Apr 2025 |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 109 · 95 of 387 measured | 1,422 | 1,432 |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 94 · 131 of 163 measured | 1,431 | 1,405 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 97 · 99 of 380 measured | 1,432 | 1,427 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 153 · 107 of 243 measured | 12.0 | 20.2 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 136 · 98 of 231 measured | 75.3% | 82.7% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 144 · 109 of 242 measured | 11.1% | 20.1% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 3 results | ||
| Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 20 · 7 of 81 measured | 52.2%bfcl prompt | 63.1%bfcl prompt |
| Irrelevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 41 · 25 of 81 measured | 81.7%bfcl fc | 86.1%bfcl fc |
| Memory · BFCL% correct, higher is better 26 · 9 of 81 measured | 23.9%bfcl fc | 51.8%bfcl prompt |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 80 · 24 of 230 measured | 49.0 | 66.8medium reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 69 · 91 of 230 measured | 15.0% | 18.0%high reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 64 · 198 of 230 measured | 0.36 | 0.31high reasoning |
Show all 25 results (13 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 | o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results | ||
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 122 · 116 of 385 measured | 1,378 | 1,383 |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 103 · 101 of 338 measured | 1,447 | 1,449 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 104 · 120 of 387 measured | 1,414 | 1,403 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 115 · 114 of 386 measured | 1,396 | 1,396 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 113 · 46 of 195 measured | 46.1% | 71.4% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 177 · 79 of 233 measured | 33.9% | 74.7% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 110 · 44 of 190 measured | 15.2% | 37.1% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 127 · 69 of 193 measured | 33.3% | 80.7% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 5 results | ||
| Multi-turn tasks · BFCL% correct, higher is better 20 · 8 of 81 measured | 45.4%bfcl fc | 62.3%bfcl prompt |
| Relevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 8 · 8 of 81 measured | 93.8%bfcl prompt | 93.8%bfcl prompt |
| Single-turn calls (curated) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 2 · 52 of 81 measured | 90.3%bfcl prompt | 81.9%bfcl prompt |
| Single-turn calls (user-contributed) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 15 · 40 of 81 measured | 78.7%bfcl prompt | 73.2%bfcl prompt |
| Web search · BFCL% correct, higher is better 20 · 9 of 81 measured | 54.0%bfcl fc | 77.0%bfcl fc |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 better than o3?
Pick o3 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 20.2 against 12.0). Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 12 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3?
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is cheaper: $0.30 against $3.50 per million tokens, 12 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3?
o3 ranks 13 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 51 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3?
o3 ranks 99 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 129 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3?
o3 ranks 50 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 85 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3?
o3 ranks 91 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 98 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 or o3?
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507: 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for o3.
Run Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 and o3 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.