DeepSeek Coder V2 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

Qwen3 235B1,440

Coding Elo

DeepSeek Coder V21,442

Qwen3 235B—

LiveBenchQwen3 235B (+4.9%)

DeepSeek Coder V258.6%

Qwen3 235B63.5%

SWE-benchDeepSeek Coder V2 (+1.1%)

DeepSeek Coder V260.5%

Qwen3 235B59.4%

GPQA DiamondQwen3 235B (+6.6%)

DeepSeek Coder V270.2%

Qwen3 235B76.8%

Time to first tokenDeepSeek Coder V2 (+30 ms)

DeepSeek Coder V2290 ms

Qwen3 235B320 ms

Output speedDeepSeek Coder V2 (+1 tok/s)

DeepSeek Coder V275 tok/s

Qwen3 235B74 tok/s

Input priceDeepSeek Coder V2 (+$0.315/1M)

DeepSeek Coder V2$0.14/1M

Qwen3 235B$0.455/1M

Output priceDeepSeek Coder V2 (+$1.54/1M)

DeepSeek Coder V2$0.28/1M

Qwen3 235B$1.82/1M

Context windowQwen3 235B (+3k)

DeepSeek Coder V2128k

Qwen3 235B131k

All DeepSeek Coder V2 matchups →|All Qwen3 235B matchups →

Benchmark	DeepSeek Coder V2	Qwen3 235B	Advantage Delta
Preference Elo	1,365 lmarena · Aug 17, 2026	1,440 lmarena · Aug 17, 2026	Qwen3 235B (+75)
Coding Elo	1,442 lmarena · Aug 17, 2026	—	—
LiveBench	58.6% livebench · Aug 17, 2026	63.5% livebench · Aug 17, 2026	Qwen3 235B (+4.9%)
SWE-bench	60.5% swebench · Aug 17, 2026	59.4% swebench · Aug 17, 2026	DeepSeek Coder V2 (+1.1%)
GPQA Diamond	70.2% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	76.8% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	Qwen3 235B (+6.6%)
Time to first token	290 ms seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	320 ms seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	DeepSeek Coder V2 (+30 ms)
Output speed	75 tok/s seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	74 tok/s seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	DeepSeek Coder V2 (+1 tok/s)
Input price	$0.14/1M seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	$0.455/1M openrouter · Aug 17, 2026	DeepSeek Coder V2 (+$0.315/1M)
Output price	$0.28/1M seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	$1.82/1M openrouter · Aug 17, 2026	DeepSeek Coder V2 (+$1.54/1M)
Context window	128k seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	131k openrouter · Aug 17, 2026	Qwen3 235B (+3k)

Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 79% with DeepSeek Coder V2

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

DeepSeek Coder V2$9.10 / mo

In: $4.9Out: $4.2

Qwen3 235B$43.22 / mo

In: $15.92Out: $27.3

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek Coder V2 is estimated to save $34.12/month ($409/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
DeepSeek Coder V2:Pick DeepSeek Coder V2 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
DeepSeek Coder V2:Pick DeepSeek Coder V2 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Qwen3 235B:Pick Qwen3 235B as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek Coder V2

Higher SWE-bench (60.5%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek Coder V2

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek Coder V2

Lower TTFT (290 ms).

Long-document RAGQwen3 235B

Larger window (131k).

Screenshots / visionQwen3 235B

Qwen3 235B is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek Coder V2	Higher SWE-bench (60.5%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek Coder V2	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek Coder V2	Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Long-document RAG	Qwen3 235B	Larger window (131k).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen3 235B	Qwen3 235B is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

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CompareLLM Matrix

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LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek Coder V2

Elo 1,365

LiveBench58.6%

SWE-bench60.5%

Speed75 tok/s

Output cost$0.28/1M

Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Elo 1,440

LiveBench63.5%

SWE-bench59.4%

Speed74 tok/s

Output cost$1.82/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Qwen3 235B?: Qwen3 235B has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,440). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Qwen3 235B?: DeepSeek Coder V2 leads SWE-bench at 60.5% vs 59.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek Coder V2 output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $1.82/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Qwen3 235B?: DeepSeek Coder V2 has the lower time-to-first-token (290 ms vs 320 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Qwen3 235B accepts 131k tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?: Both DeepSeek Coder V2 and Qwen3 235B are marked open-weights. Hosting cost is not in this table.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek Coder V2 and Qwen3 235B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

DeepSeek Coder V2 vs DeepSeek V3 (next deepseek)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B (previous qwen)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen QwQ 32B (next qwen)DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3 235B DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Qwen3 235B DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek Coder V2

DeepSeek Coder V2 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageQwen3 235B 4/6

Benchmark

DeepSeek Coder V2

Qwen3 235B

Advantage Delta

Preference Elo

1,365

1,440

Qwen3 235B (+75)

Coding Elo

1,442

—

LiveBench

58.6%

63.5%

Qwen3 235B (+4.9%)

SWE-bench

60.5%

59.4%

DeepSeek Coder V2 (+1.1%)

GPQA Diamond

70.2%

76.8%

Qwen3 235B (+6.6%)

Time to first token

290 ms

320 ms

DeepSeek Coder V2 (+30 ms)

Output speed

75 tok/s

74 tok/s

DeepSeek Coder V2 (+1 tok/s)

Input price

$0.14/1M

$0.455/1M

DeepSeek Coder V2 (+$0.315/1M)

Output price

$0.28/1M

$1.82/1M

DeepSeek Coder V2 (+$1.54/1M)

Context window

128k

131k