Alibaba has launched a newer model, Qwen3 Coder Next, we suggest considering this model instead.
For more information, see Comparison of Qwen3 Coder Next to other models and API provider benchmarks for Qwen3 Coder Next.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct Intelligence, Performance & Price Analysis
Model summary
Intelligence
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Speed
Output tokens per second
Input Price
USD per 1M tokens
Output Price
USD per 1M tokens
Verbosity
Output tokens from Intelligence Index
Metrics are compared against models of the same class:
- Non-reasoning models → compared only with other non-reasoning models
- Reasoning models → compared across both reasoning and non-reasoning
- Open weights models → compared only with other open weights models of the same size class:
- Tiny: ≤4B parameters
- Small: 4B–40B parameters
- Medium: 40B–150B parameters
- Large: >150B parameters
- Proprietary models → compared across proprietary and open weights models of the same price range, using a blended 3:1 input/output price ratio:
- <$0.15 per 1M tokens
- $0.15–$1 per 1M tokens
- >$1 per 1M tokens
| Reasoning | No This page shows the non-reasoning version of this model. A reasoning variant may also exist. |
|---|---|
| Input modality | Supports: text |
| Output modality | Supports: text |
| Context window | 262k ~393 A4 pages of size 12 Arial font |
| Total parameters | 30.5B |
| Active parameters | 3.3B Number of parameters active per token during inference |
| License | Apache 2.0 |
| Model weights | Hugging Face |
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is amongst the leading models in intelligence, but particularly expensive when comparing to other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size. It's also notably slow and somewhat verbose. The model supports text input, outputs text, and has a 262k tokens context window.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct scores 20 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it well above average among comparable models (averaging 12). When evaluating the Intelligence Index, it generated 13M tokens, which is somewhat verbose in comparison to the average of 5.3M.
Pricing for Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is $0.45 per 1M input tokens (expensive, average: $0.10) and $2.25 per 1M output tokens (expensive, average: $0.20). In total, it cost $72.84 to evaluate Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct on the Intelligence Index.
At 26 tokens per second, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is notably slow (104).
Intelligence
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index by Open Weights / Proprietary
Intelligence Evaluations
Openness
Artificial Analysis Openness Index: Results
Intelligence Index Comparisons
Intelligence vs. Price
Intelligence Index Token Use & Cost
Output Tokens Used to Run Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Cost to Run Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Context Window
Context Window
Pricing
Pricing: Input and Output Prices
Intelligence vs. Price (Log Scale)
Pricing Comparison of Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct API Providers
Speed
Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)
Output Speed
Output Speed vs. Price
Latency
Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token
Latency: Time To First Answer Token
End-to-End Response Time
Seconds to output 500 Tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed
End-to-End Response Time
Model Size (Open Weights Models Only)
Model Size: Total and Active Parameters
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct was released on July 31, 2025.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct was created by Alibaba.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct scores 20 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it well above average among other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 12).
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct generates output at 26.5 tokens per second (based on Alibaba's API), which is at the lower end compared to other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 104.4 t/s).
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has a time to first token (TTFT) of 2.76s (based on Alibaba's API), which is at the higher end compared to other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 1.33s).
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.45 per 1M input tokens (at the higher end, median: $0.16) and $2.25 per 1M output tokens (at the higher end, median: $0.40), based on Alibaba's API.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.45 per 1M input tokens and $2.25 per 1M output tokens (based on Alibaba's API). For a blended rate (3:1 input to output ratio), this is $0.90 per 1M tokens. Pricing may vary by provider. Compare provider pricing
When evaluated on the Intelligence Index, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct generated 13M output tokens, which is somewhat higher than average compared to other open weight non-reasoning models of similar size (median: 5.3M).
No, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is not a reasoning model. It provides direct responses without extended chain-of-thought reasoning.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct supports text input.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct supports text output.
No, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct does not support image input. It can only process text.
No, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is not multimodal. It only supports text input.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has a context window of 260k tokens. This determines how much text and conversation history the model can process in a single request.
Yes, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is open weights. The model weights are publicly available and can be downloaded for self-hosting.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has 30.5 billion parameters (3.3 billion active).
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is a Mixture of Experts (MoE) model with 30.5 billion total parameters, but only 3.3 billion active parameters are used during inference.
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is released under the Apache 2.0 license. This license allows commercial use. View license
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct achieves a score of 20 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. This composite benchmark evaluates models across reasoning, knowledge, mathematics, and coding.
Yes, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is available via API through 5 providers. Compare API providers
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is available through 5 API providers. Compare providers