Qwen-Plus vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Qwen3 30B A3B costs 1.6x less per output token than Qwen-Plus ($0.50 vs $0.78 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 27 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen-Plus or Qwen3 30B A3B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen-Plus for a larger context window (1M against 41K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 27
- Qwen-Plus only
- 1
- Qwen3 30B A3B only
- 25
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
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, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Qwen3 30B A3B has a AA Intelligence Index result, 7.6.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3 30B A3B has a Design Arena: websites result, 955.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen-Plus
Qwen-Plus takes 1M tokens against 41K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B
Qwen-Plus $0.0006, Qwen3 30B A3B $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen-Plus not benchmarked, Qwen3 30B A3B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 18.3 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- OTIS Mock AIME: Qwen-Plus 17.8% against Qwen3 30B A3B 62.8%, 45.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen-Plus $0.78 against Qwen3 30B A3B $0.50 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen-Plus takes 1M tokens, Qwen3 30B A3B 41K.
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 | Qwen-Plus | Bars | Qwen3 30B A3B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 1 | ||
| Math | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 1 | ||
| General | 13 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 20 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index11
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 50.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 29.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1328 | 1337 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1343 | 1340 | Qwen-Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 7.6 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 137.3 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 26.0% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 61.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.2% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 48.1% | 61.7% | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1317 | 1314 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1328 | 1314 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1333 | 1329 | Qwen-Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 72.3 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 72.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 17.8% | 62.8% | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| MATH level 5 | 65.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen-Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1326 | 1355 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1332 | 1363 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 77.7% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1352 | 1321 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1350 | 1318 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1349 | 1314 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1303 | 1309 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 955 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 946 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 899 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 967 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 942 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index131
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 41.5% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| DTBench | 81.1% | 60.3% | Qwen-Plus |
| LMCA | 24.0% | 15.8% | Qwen-Plus |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 40.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1326 | 1317 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1303 | 1283 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1292 | 1271 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: English | 1339 | 1335 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1310 | 1295 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1347 | 1347 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1307 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1251 | 1254 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1261 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1352 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1317 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1323 | 1291 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1299 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1336 | 1307 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1324 | 1312 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1296 | 1290 | Qwen-Plus |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1270 | 1258 | Qwen-Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B | 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
Qwen3 30B A3B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B 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 | Qwen-Plus | Qwen3 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | February 1, 2025 | April 28, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 41K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.26 | $0.12 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.78 | $0.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen-Plus better than Qwen3 30B A3B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen-Plus for a larger context window (1M against 41K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen-Plus or Qwen3 30B A3B?
Qwen-Plus costs $0.26 per million input tokens and $0.78 per million output tokens; Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.12 and $0.50. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen-Plus or Qwen3 30B A3B?
Qwen-Plus, with 1M tokens against 41K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen-Plus vs Qwen3 30B A3B comparison based on?
27 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen-Plus's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 30B A3B's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.