DeepSeek V3.2 Exp vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Updated October 21, 2026. 43 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for coding: it scores 63.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 55.0 for DeepSeek V3.2 Exp.
Pick DeepSeek V3.2 Exp when output tokens cost 14.6x less.
- Shared results
- 43
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp only
- 14
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only
- 70
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, four public coding benchmarks
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 63.5 against 55.0.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 45.4 against 16.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a AA Agentic Index result, 56.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a GPQA Diamond result, 93.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a MMLU Pro result, 88.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 1275 against 1179.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) takes 1M tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp $0.0005, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $0.0050 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has the number, $1.32.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp 55.0 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 63.5 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 32.8 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: DeepSeek V3.2 Exp 1272 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 1674, 57.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp $0.41 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $6.00 per million output tokens, 14.6x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp takes 164K tokens, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 1M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Bars | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 5 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 6 | ||
| General | 0 | 20 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 43 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 74.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1272 | 1674 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 76.2 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 34.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 24.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 53.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 17.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| WeirdML | 39.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1438 | 1502 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1438 | 1498 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1692 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1281 | 1649 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1637 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 16.6 | 45.4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.9 | 157.4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 56.0 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1301 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1305 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1223 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1207 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1234 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1257 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | Not measured | 868 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 69.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 32.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 42.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 60.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 33.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 63.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| TheAgentCompany | 42.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Search | Not measured | 1261 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 93.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 88.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 23.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.7% | 92.8% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 14.9% | 43.1% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 92.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 46.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 38.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1429 | 1496 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1422 | 1507 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1444 | 1503 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1323 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1336 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 87.7 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 87.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 100.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 74.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 58.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1422 | 1501 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1433 | 1491 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 47.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1443 | 1512 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1468 | 1503 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1419 | 1492 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1412 | 1480 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1179 | 1275 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1166 | 1340 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1145 | 1313 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1152 | 1281 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1148 | 1337 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1171 | 1293 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1031 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1201 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 78.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index020
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 78.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 65.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IFBench | 54.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 72.3% | 80.3% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| DTBench | 87.7% | 92.0% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMCA | 29.1% | 46.2% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 83.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| CL-bench | 13.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 20.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CL-bench Life | 9.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text | 1425 | 1483 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1401 | 1481 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1404 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1313 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1441 | 1491 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1404 | 1473 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1461 | 1539 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: German | 1440 | 1478 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1331 | 1473 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1372 | 1460 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: French | 1434 | 1498 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1441 | 1489 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1412 | 1482 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1435 | 1471 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1422 | 1489 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1418 | 1488 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1407 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1407 | 1464 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1311 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1358 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1322 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1304 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1312 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | September 29, 2025 | September 3, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.27 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.41 | $6.00 |
| Coding index | 55.0 | 63.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.32 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3.2 Exp better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for coding?
Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for coding: it scores 63.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 55.0 for DeepSeek V3.2 Exp. Pick DeepSeek V3.2 Exp when output tokens cost 14.6x less.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.2 Exp or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp costs $0.27 per million input tokens and $0.41 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 and $6.00. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3.2 Exp or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
Qwen3.8 Max (0902), with 1M tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3.2 Exp vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902) comparison based on?
43 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V3.2 Exp's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.8 Max (0902)'s on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.