Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Step 5 Preview
Updated October 21, 2026. 31 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 71.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 50.0 for Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B.
Pick Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B when output tokens cost 2.7x less.
- Shared results
- 31
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B only
- 21
- Step 5 Preview only
- 30
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview scores 71.4 against 50.0.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 11.9.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B has a Design Arena: websites result, 1159.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $0.0008, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 50.0 from 2 benchmarks, Step 5 Preview 71.4 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 33.3 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: React: Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 1257 against Step 5 Preview 1583, 54.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $1.00 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 2.7x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B takes 262K tokens, Step 5 Preview 1.05M.
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 Coder 480B A35B | Bars | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 4 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 15 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 31 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index05
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 69.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1275 | 1567 | Step 5 Preview |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 39.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 58.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 18.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 27.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| GSO-Bench | 4.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| WeirdML | 41.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| ALE-Bench | 461.4 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1412 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1393 | 1473 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1257 | 1583 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1287 | 1556 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1550 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.9 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 24.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 27.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.7% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 27.3% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 57.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 29.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 43.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 83.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 61.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.5% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1372 | 1461 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1338 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1380 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1308 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 39.3 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1365 | 1458 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1367 | 1460 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1347 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1347 | 1439 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1358 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1343 | 1435 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1159 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1112 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1099 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1084 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1143 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index015
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 63.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IFBench | 40.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 45.7% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text | 1357 | 1440 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1355 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1333 | 1409 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1265 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1359 | 1447 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1346 | 1428 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1357 | 1500 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: German | 1325 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1311 | 1383 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1305 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1398 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1360 | 1441 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1366 | 1433 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1344 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1366 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1378 | 1449 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1340 | 1425 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1317 | 1412 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1290 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1282 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | Step 5 Preview | 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 480B A35B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 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 Coder 480B A35B | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | July 23, 2025 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.00 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 50.0 | 71.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Pick Step 5 Preview for coding: it scores 71.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 50.0 for Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B. Pick Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B when output tokens cost 2.7x less.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B or Step 5 Preview?
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.00 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
31 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Step 5 Preview's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.