Compare / Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview

Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-Coder-480B-A35B Released 31 Jul 2025 · $0.35 in · $1.50 out
GoogleGemini 3 Flash Preview Released 17 Dec 2025 · $0.50 in · $3.00 out
Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B wins 1Gemini 3 Flash Preview wins 19

Of the 20 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 20 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-20-96eb40c3ec63). See also Alibaba vs Google, every model from both labs.

Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview? The short answer

Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 26.3 against 11.9). Pick Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B if cost matters more: it costs 43% less per token.

  • Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B is cheaper: $0.64 against $1.12 per million tokens, 43% less.
  • Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 26.3 against 11.9.
  • Gemini 3 Flash Preview is newer: released 17 Dec 2025, against 31 Jul 2025 for Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Gemini 3 Flash Preview does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

11.9
Intelligence Index
26.3
$0.64
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$1.12
262,144
Context window, tokens
1,048,576

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35BGemini 3 Flash Preview
Price per million tokens$0.35 in · $1.50 out$0.50 in · $3.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.64$1.12
Cheapest host, blended$0.47 (DeepInfra, FP4)$1.12 (Google)
Intelligence Index11.926.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Released31 Jul 202517 Dec 2025 (newer)
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe 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.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 166 of 168 82 of 168
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 46 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 155 of 202 57 of 202
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 122 of 189 28 of 189
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 133 of 153 56 of 153

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.

MeasureQwen3-Coder-480B-A35BGemini 3 Flash Preview
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 156 · 36 of 387 measured 1,387 1,473
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 135 · 27 of 163 measured 1,401 1,468
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 148 · 34 of 380 measured 1,391 1,468
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 159 · 71 of 249 measured 11.9 26.3thinking reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 179 · 44 of 232 measured 61.8% 89.8%thinking reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 208 · 58 of 248 measured 4.5% 36.6%thinking reasoning
OpenHands Index reported by OpenHands Index · 3 results
Average% resolved, higher is better 33 · 20 of 34 measured 30.9%openhands 49.0%openhands
Front end (SWE-Bench Multimodal)% resolved, higher is better 29 · 30 of 34 measured 23.5%openhands 22.1%openhands
Greenfield (Commit0)% resolved, higher is better 34 · 21 of 34 measured 0.0%openhands 18.8%openhands
Show all 20 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3-Coder-480B-A35BGemini 3 Flash Preview
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 141 · 23 of 385 measured 1,363 1,457
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 174 · 44 of 338 measured 1,379 1,496
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 144 · 44 of 387 measured 1,384 1,457
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 150 · 28 of 386 measured 1,366 1,461
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 133 · 9 of 195 measured 40.5% 78.0%thinking reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 167 · 63 of 239 measured 45.7% 78.0%thinking reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 94 · 37 of 190 measured 18.9% 38.6%thinking reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 110 · 70 of 193 measured 43.6% 80.4%thinking reasoning
OpenHands Index reported by OpenHands Index · 3 results
Information gathering (GAIA)% resolved, higher is better 29 · 19 of 34 measured 33.9%openhands 58.8%openhands
Issue resolution (SWE-Bench)% resolved, higher is better 30 · 13 of 34 measured 62.4%openhands 74.6%openhands
Testing (SWT-Bench)% resolved, higher is better 32 · 11 of 34 measured 34.9%openhands 70.7%openhands

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B better than Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 26.3 against 11.9). Pick Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B if cost matters more: it costs 43% less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B is cheaper: $0.64 against $1.12 per million tokens, 43% less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview ranks 82 of 168 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 166 for Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview ranks 57 of 202 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 155 for Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview ranks 28 of 189 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 122 for Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview ranks 56 of 153 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 133 for Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B.

Run Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B and Gemini 3 Flash Preview on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.

Try the playgroundTalk to us