Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Updated October 21, 2026. 7 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 63.5 and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 60.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, but no coding benchmark measured both, so the gap is directional, not a ranking.
Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when the context window is larger, 1M against 262K tokens, or when what matters is AA Intelligence Index or GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads; pick Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct when output tokens cost 21.4x less.
- Shared results
- 7
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only
- 106
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct only
- 9
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 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
No call
63.5 against 60.4, from different benchmarks with none in common.
Directional only
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 45.4 against 9.6.
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 1087.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) takes 1M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $0.0050, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct $0.0002 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
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 63.5 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 60.4 from 1 benchmark.
- Widest category
- General, 47.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 80.3% against Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 32.7%, 47.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $6.00 against Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct $0.28 per million output tokens, 21.4x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) takes 1M tokens, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 262K.
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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Bars | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 3 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 7 | 0 |
CodingDirectional onlyFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index26 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 60.4% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| SWE-bench Lite | Not measured | 49.7% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| LiveBench coding | 60.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1674 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| AA Coding Index | 76.2 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 87.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 85.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 34.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 64.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 24.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 68.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 67.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 42.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 12.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 42.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 28.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| SciCode | 53.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 15.2% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| FrontierSWE | 17.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1502 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1498 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1692 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1649 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1637 | Not measured | 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 index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 45.4 | 9.6 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 157.4 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 56.0 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1301 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1305 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1223 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1207 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1234 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1257 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 868 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench research | 69.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench browser | 32.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 42.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 50.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 32.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 47.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 60.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 12.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 34.5% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| APEX-Agents | 63.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Search | 1261 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 93.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 88.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 23.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.8% | 51.6% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.1% | 3.8% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 92.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Chess puzzles | 46.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 38.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1496 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1507 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1503 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1323 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1336 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 29.0 | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 74.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 46.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProofBench | 58.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1501 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1491 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 65.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 75.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 64.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 40.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 70.6% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 47.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1512 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1503 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1492 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1480 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1275 | 1087 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1340 | 1046 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1313 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1281 | 1085 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1337 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1293 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1201 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench design | 78.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 78.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 67.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 85.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 65.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.3% | 32.7% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| DTBench | 92.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMCA | 46.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Furniture assembly | 20.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text | 1483 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1481 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1477 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1313 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1491 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1473 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1539 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1478 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1473 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1460 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1498 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1489 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1482 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1471 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1489 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1488 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1477 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1464 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1311 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1358 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1322 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1304 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1312 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | 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 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 3, 2026 | July 31, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.07 |
| Output $/Mtok | $6.00 | $0.28 |
| Coding index | 63.5 | 60.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.32 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.8 Max (0902) better than Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct for coding?
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 63.5 and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 60.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, but no coding benchmark measured both, so the gap is directional, not a ranking. Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when the context window is larger, 1M against 262K tokens, or when what matters is AA Intelligence Index or GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads; pick Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct when output tokens cost 21.4x less.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.07 and $0.28. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?
Qwen3.8 Max (0902), with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct comparison based on?
7 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max (0902)'s coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.